The NBA Draft Lottery was good, not great, to the Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers went into the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night with a glimmer of hope of landing a premium draft pick. Sitting 14th in the lottery order, the team had a 2.4 percent chance of leaping up over their peers and landing in the Top 4.

That hope was slim but real; a 1-in-41 chance of adding one more elite prospect to their young core. Could Jabari Smith thrive at small forward next to Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen? Would Shaedon Sharpe finally solve this team’s problem on the wing?

The Draft Lottery show began with some preamble, including an introduction of each team’s representatives sitting on the dais. Anderson Varejao looked vaguely uncomfortable sitting on stage, waiting to see if he could awkwardly celebrate his team getting a top-4 pick.

Then the envelopes were walked to the podium by an independent third party, guarded by NBA security. NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum came next, ready to deliver the results. Any moment now-

Then so fast no one knew things were starting, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ logo was on screen in the 14th spot, and that glimmer of hope was extinguished. The Cavs were picking 14th, and the most talked-about prospects in this year’s draft would be long gone. No time to mourn, either; Charlotte’s name was being announced just a second later. Tatum was wasting no time.

The lottery would go on to relatively little excitement this year; the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t have to watch their pick turn into a Top-4 selection, and the well-run San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers were neither rewarded nor punished. The Sacramento Kings jumped up to No. 4 from seventh, and the Orlando Magic won the first overall pick.

It may seem like the night was a disappointment for the Cavs, but that’s taking a very slim view of what happened. Sure, that 2.4 percent chance didn’t hit; the Cavs can’t trot out Chet Holmgren at shooting guard next year in a Quad-Tower alignment.

They will pick in the lottery, though, which doesn’t always happen for teams as good as the Cavs were last season. They came very close to losing their pick altogether, and instead get to add another young player sooner. This draft is flush with wings and forwards, which happens to be exactly what the Cavs need.

More so, the other results from the Draft Lottery were mostly positive for the Cavs in terms of their positioning in the Eastern Conference. Here are the results in full:

The other Eastern Conference Play-In Team, the Charlotte Hornets, did not move up from the No. 13 slot either. The New York Knicks and Washington Wizards, two teams that could be jostling for the postseason next season alongside the Cavs, likewise stayed put at No. 11 and No. 10, respectively. The Indiana Pacers, with their first pick inside the Top 10 since the 1980s, slipped back a spot rather than leaping up.

Long-term, the Cavs’ key rival to build a young and dynamic core is the Detroit Pistons, who also came away from last year’s draft with a top-tier talent in Cade Cunningham. They entered the Draft Lottery with a strong chance to snag the No. 1 pick, and instead fell outside the Top 4 entirely to land fifth.

That leaves the Orlando Magic as the only Eastern Conference team to land in the Top 4, moving up from the second slot to snag the top pick. They are clearly the team in the East furthest away from competing, and this pick will likely be their first elite prospect after hitting singles and doubles in recent years near the top of the lottery.

The Cavs have plenty of reason to be confident heading into next season, and they will be even more confident after the NBA Draft, whether they select a player at No. 14 or flip it in a trade for veteran help. None of the teams around and below them found much lottery luck either, making Tuesday a good night overall for the organization.

Now the focus turns that much more fully to evaluating the players likely to be available at No. 14. Do the Cavs go for a true wing, a combo forward, or perhaps even a backup point guard? The weeks ahead will hash that out as the franchise settles into the best use of this lottery pick. A top-4 pick would have been nice, but the Cavs are in good shape nonetheless.