The University of Connecticut had four players selected in the first round, tying the record set by Duke University in 1999 and the University of North Carolina in 2005. These players were Rudy Gay, Hilton Armstrong, Marcus Williams, and Josh Boone. With Denham Brown also selected in the second round, Connecticut became the first school ever to have five players selected in a two-round draft. Connecticut joined eight other schools that had five players selected in a single draft, second only to UNLV, who had six players selected in the eight-round 1977 draft.
The last remaining active member of this draft class was Kyle Lowry, who announced his retirement during the 2025–26 NBA season. This is also the most recent season which has no active players.
↑Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according to FIBA rules.
eBoston acquired the draft rights to 21st pick Rajon Rondo, Brian Grant and cash considerations from Phoenix in exchange for a 2007 first-round draft pick.
g 12Memphis acquired the draft rights to 45th pick Alexander Johnson from Portland in exchange for a 2008 second-round draft pick. Previously, Portland acquired the draft rights to 45th pick Alexander Johnson, 2007 and 2008 second-round draft picks from Indiana in exchange for the draft rights to 31st pick James White.
hPhiladelphia acquired the draft rights to 37th pick Bobby Jones from Minnesota in exchange for a 2007 second-round draft pick and cash considerations.
iHouston acquired the draft rights to 44th pick Lior Eliyahu from Orlando in exchange for cash considerations.
jBoston acquired the draft rights to 49th pick Leon Powe from Denver in exchange for a 2007 second-round draft pick.
q On February 3, 2006, New York acquired Denver's 2006 first-round draft pick and Jalen Rose from Toronto in exchange for Antonio Davis. Previously, Toronto acquired Philadelphia's 2005 and Denver's 2006 first-round draft picks, Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams on December 17, 2004, from New Jersey in exchange for Vince Carter. Previously, New Jersey acquired Philadelphia's 2005, Denver's 2006 and L.A. Clippers' 2006 first-round draft picks on July 15, 2004, from Denver in exchange for Kenyon Martin. New York used the 20th pick to draft Renaldo Balkman.
s On July 15, 2005, New Jersey acquired Philadelphia's 2005, Denver's 2006 and L.A. Clippers' 2006 first-round draft picks from Denver in exchange for Kenyon Martin. Previously, Denver acquired L.A. Clippers' 2006 first-round draft pick and Don Reid on August 1, 2002, from Orlando in exchange for a 2004 second-round draft pick. Previously, Orlando acquired a first-round draft pick on June 28, 2006, from the L.A. Clippers in exchange for Corey Maggette, Derek Strong, the draft rights to Keyon Dooling, a 2000 second-round draft pick and cash considerations. New Jersey used the 22nd pick to draft Marcus Williams.
v On June 28, 2005, Portland acquired Detroit's 2006 first-round draft pick, the 6th and 27th pick in 2005 from Utah in exchange for the 3rd pick in 2005. Previously, Utah acquired a 2006 first-round draft pick and Elden Campbell on January 21, 2005, from Detroit in exchange for Carlos Arroyo. Portland used the 30th pick to draft Joel Freeland.
aa On February 23, 2006, Cleveland acquired a 2006 second-round draft pick and Lee Nailon from Philadelphia in exchange for a conditional 2006 second-round draft pick. The conditional 2006 second-round draft pick was not exercised by Philadelphia. Cleveland used the 42nd pick to draft Daniel Gibson.
ab On June 28, 2005, Orlando acquired Milwaukee's 2006 second-round draft pick from Cleveland in exchange for the draft rights to Martynas Andriuškevičius. Previously, Cleveland acquired a 2006 second-round draft pick from Milwaukee in exchange for Jiri Welsch. Orlando used the 44th pick to draft Lior Eliyahu.
ac On September 30, 2003, Utah acquired Houston's 2004 first-round draft pick, Chicago's 2005 and 2006 second-round draft picks, Glen Rice and cash considerations from Houston in exchange for John Amaechi and Sacramento's 2004 second-round draft pick. Previously, Houston acquired 2005 and 2006 second-round draft picks on September 28, 2000, from Chicago in exchange for Bryce Drew. Utah used the 46th pick to draft Dee Brown.
ae On June 28, 2005, Seattle acquired 2006 and 2007 second-round draft picks from Memphis in exchange for the draft rights to Lawrence Roberts. Seattle used the 53rd pick to draft Yotam Halperin.
af On January 31, 2006, Toronto acquired Miami's 2006 second-round draft pick and New Orleans's 2009 second-round draft pick from New Orleans/Oklahoma City in exchange for Aaron Williams. Previously, New Orleans/Oklahoma City acquired Miami's 2006 second-round draft pick on September 30, 2005, from Boston in exchange for Dan Dickau. Previously, Boston acquired 2006 and 2008 second-round draft picks, Qyntel Woods and the draft rights to Albert Miralles on August 8, 2005, from Miami in a five-team trade with Miami, Memphis, New Orleans/Oklahoma City and Utah. Toronto used the 56th pick to draft Edin Bavčić.
The first 14 picks in the draft belonged to teams that had missed the playoffs; the order was determined through a lottery. The lottery would determine the three teams that would obtain the first three picks on the draft. The remaining first-round picks and the second-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. On April 20, 2007, the NBA performed a tie-breaker to determine the order of the picks for teams with identical win–loss record.
The 2006 Draft Lottery was held on May 23, 2006, in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Toronto Raptors, who had the fifth-worst record, won the lottery with just 8.8% chance to win. The Chicago Bulls, who acquired the New York Knicks' first-round draft pick from a previous trade, landed the second overall pick. The Portland Trail Blazers who had the best chance to land the top pick fell out of the top three and had to settle with 4th pick. Portland's 4th pick was the lowest possible pick that Portland could obtained through the lottery.
Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2006 draft lottery, rounded to three decimal places:
The new collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) took into effect starting in this year's draft. Under the new agreement, high school players were not eligible for selection. The new rules stated that high school players must wait one year after their high school class graduates and must be at least 19 years old to be eligible for the draft.
The basic requirements for draft eligibility are:
All drafted players must be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year of the draft (i.e. born on or before December 31, 1987, for the 2006 draft).
Any player who is not an "international player", as defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.
The CBA defines "international players" as players who permanently resided outside the U.S. for three years before the draft, did not complete high school in the U.S., and have never enrolled at a U.S. college or university.
The basic requirement for automatic eligibility for a U.S. player is the completion of his college eligibility. Players who meet the CBA definition of "international players" are automatically eligible if their 22nd birthday falls during or before the calendar year of the draft (i.e., born on or before December 31, 1984, for the 2006 draft).
A player who is not automatically eligible must declare his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 60 days before the draft. An early entry candidate is allowed to withdraw his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 10 days before the draft. On June 19, 2006, NBA announced that 37 college players and 10 international players had filed as early-entry candidates for the 2006 Draft, while 47 players who had previously declared as early entry candidates had withdrawn from the draft.
Early entrants
This year would mark the very first year where the NBA would not allow for high school prospects to enter the NBA draft after previously allowing it since 1995.
College underclassmen
This year would mark a step down from the number of underclassmen expressing their interest in joining the NBA draft. After previously having over 100 players expressing their interest last year, this year only saw 92 total underclassmen from college or overseas play express interest in entering the NBA draft. However 46 of these players would later withdraw their entries into the draft, leaving only 46 total underclassmen from college or overseas areas officially entering the draft this year. The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.
Players who do not meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:
They have no remaining college eligibility.
If they graduated from high school in the U.S., but did not enroll in a U.S. college or university, four years have passed since their high school class graduated.
They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA, anywhere in the world, and have played under the contract.
Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:
They are at least 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In term of dates players born on or before December 31, 1984, are automatically eligible for the 2006 draft.
They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA within the United States, and have played under that contract.
Left Oregon in 2005; playing professionally since the 2005–06 season
Invited attendees
The 2006 NBA draft is considered to be the 28th NBA draft to have utilized what is properly considered the "green room" experience for NBA prospects. The NBA's green room is a staging area where anticipated draftees often sit with their families and representatives, waiting for their names to be called on draft night. Often being positioned either in front of or to the side of the podium (in this case, being positioned somewhere within The Theater at Madison Square Garden), once a player heard his name, he would walk to the podium to shake hands and take promotional photos with the NBA commissioner. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. However, once the NBA draft started to air nationally on TV starting with the 1980 NBA draft, the green room evolved from players waiting to hear their name called and then shaking hands with these select players who were often called to the hotel to take promotional pictures with the NBA commissioner a day or two after the draft concluded to having players in real-time waiting to hear their names called up and then shaking hands with David Stern, the NBA's commissioner at the time.
The NBA compiled its list of green room invites through collective voting by the NBA's team presidents and general managers alike, which in this year's case belonged to only what they believed were the top 15 prospects at the time. Despite the lower amount of invites for this year's draft when compared to the previous year's draft, there would still be some notable discrepancies involved with the invitations at hand between the invitation for Marcus Williams potentially going out to Thabo Sefolosha and a missing invitation for Mouhamed Sene to provide a perfect top 16 prospect listing, as well as missing invitations for future All-Stars Rajon Rondo, Kyle Lowry, and arguably Paul Millsap for good measure. With that in mind, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.
↑"Lakers Sign J.R. Pinnock". NBA.com/Lakers. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. September 6, 2006. Archived from the original on February 11, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
↑"Raptors Trade Carter To Nets". NBA.com/Raptors. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. December 17, 2004. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
↑"Jazz Acquire 3rd Pick". NBA.com/Jazz. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. June 28, 2005. Archived from the original on March 8, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
↑"Arroyo Trade". NBA.com/Jazz. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. January 21, 2005. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
↑"Knicks Acquire Maurice Taylor". NBA.com/Knicks. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. February 24, 2005. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
↑"Jazz trade John Amaechi". NBA.com/Jazz. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. September 30, 2003. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
↑"Raptors Trade Aaron Williams". NBA.com/Raptors. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. January 31, 2006. Archived from the original on June 30, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
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