Brandon Roy scored 52 points?

In a basketball game?

He’s a nice player and all, but I didn’t know he had a 50-point game in him.

I only saw the beginning of that game, before Roy apparently exploded. I was watching while LaMarcus Aldridge was the one setting the tone (he scored 10 of his 16 points in the first quarter).

What I saw was a series of offensive moves in the low post — hook shots and turnarounds — and a few mid-range jumpers from Aldridge that, as seeing Aldridge play well usually does, annoyed and/or angered me.

At this point, though, I’m more angry out of habit than out of principle.

I’ve never been annoyed or angered with Aldridge for his abilities, or, well, anything really.

I’ve been annoyed and angry because I’ve kept thinking back to the 2006 NBA Draft, when Bulls GM John Paxson selected Aldridge with the No. 2 pick and traded him to Portland for No. 4 pick Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa.

Thomas is on his way to being a bust (some already call him that… I’m almost, but not quite there), Khryapa never got a shot with the Bulls and ended up getting bought out so he could go back to Russia to play, and Aldridge is looking exactly like the player the Bulls needed when they drafted-and-traded him, needed the year after, and still need now: a 6′ 11″, 245-lb. PF/C who can score down low, out to mid-range, and can rebound a little.

And I’ve been saying that since the weeks leading up to the 2006 draft!

Ugh.

I’ve been trying to keep the past in the past and forget about the second-guessing. I keep hoping that the occasional flashes of awesomeness Tyrus Thomas displays will someday (soon!) translate into some consistent play.

Maybe I’m just fooling myself with Thomas and I do have a right to be upset about the 2006 draft, regardless of how much I try to suppress that frustration.

Suppressing that frustration certainly isn’t made any easier when I read blogs and sports columns that still second-guess the move, or especially when I hear Mark Schanowski, of Comcast SportsNet Chicago, with his announcer-man voice and TV-man hair, slyly throw in comments whose tone borders on joy and sarcasm, like: “And just imagine if John Paxson had taken LaMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy…” during the Bulls postgame show.

Well, Mark, y’know what?

I’m starting to change my mind. The more I imagine it, the more I’m glad Paxson took Thomas.

I was never big on the Bulls taking Roy. They had guards. Still do, for that matter. But Aldridge was the frontcourt player the Bulls needed more than Thomas. Oddly, while Paxson usually played it safe, only to be chided for it, the first time he took a gamble (in the form of Thomas over Aldridge), it hasn’t panned out. And now he’s being chided for it.

But that’s okay. Let the people chide.

I say that because I have no doubt that the Bulls would’ve been a much better team during the past few years. Yes, I realize that’s typically what you want out of your team.

However, if the Bulls had made it deeper in the playoffs, or — more importantly — had played well enough to stay out of the 2008 NBA Draft Lottery, they wouldn’t have hit the jackpot and landed the chance to select Derrick Rose.

Sure, Rose is just a rookie and it’s tough to project what he may or may not do from here on out. But from everything I’ve seen out of him so far, I would rather have Derrick Rose and Tyrus Thomas’ still raw potential over LaMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy.

Even if Thomas never pans out, I’m comfortable with not having Aldridge if that means Derrick Rose gets to don the Bulls uniform.