NBA Draft Lottery 2014 Complete: Cavaliers Win Big
Well basketball fans, the NBA draft lottery is complete, and one team is certain to be thanking their lucky stars. The Cleveland Cavaliers won big for the second time in a row and for the third time in just 4 years. Once again, they get to make the first pick in the annual NBA draft, which is slated to go down on June 26.
This lottery win was a real shocker. The Cavaliers, who were down in the ninth spot prior to today, had a paltry 1.7 percent chance of winning this year’s NBA draft lottery. Now comes the part that depends on zero luck – the draft decision. The draft options this year are truly stellar, so the stakes are especially high.
Cavaliers vice chairman Jeff Cohen definitely realizes this:
“This means everything. This is the deepest draft arguably since LeBron (James) and Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony came out.”
The Cavaliers hope to make a much better decision than they did last year. Their previous NBA draft choice, UNLV forward Anthony Bennett, wound up performing okay at best. The fact that he was chosen at all still remains quite the mystery, considering that he was injured at the time. Their most likely choice for this year’s NBA draft is Kansas Jayhawks center Joel Embiid, Kansas Jawhawks forward Andrew Wiggins or Duke Blue Devil’s forward Jabari Parker.
Unfortunately, the Cavaliers have very little time to celebrate their lottery luck (let alone think over their draft decision) as they must first find a replacement coach, ASAP. According to ESPN, Mike Brown was fired only days ago, thus making it the second time he has been fired from the same team.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert first fired him in 2010, but then rehired him in April 2013. And while the team performed decently this past season, the fact they missed the playoffs again was more than Gilbert could bear.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks came in second in the NBA draft lottery while the Philadelphia 76ers came in third; the Orlando Magic came in fourth; the Utah Jazz came in fifth, and the San Antonio Spurs came in dead last.
The “big losers” of the lottery, as identified by CBS Sports, were the Lakers and the Celtics. Both teams failed to make any headway in the lottery, and both teams are vying for Minnesota Timberwolves player Kevin Love.
If you want to watch the full 2014 NBA draft lottery, check the video below:
Images via [Google Images]
