The Draft lottery in Secaucus, New Jersey. Cleveland had two lottery picks, one from the Clippers and their own. The Clippers pick had a 2.8 chance of winning the lottery (10th best chance out of a possible 14 picks). Cleveland's pick was a higher selection, having the 3rd best shot of claiming the number 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. After a short period of time with announcing the order (from 14 to 1), everyone figured out: Cleveland would have the Clipper's pick as a top 3 selection. Well, Cleveland's actual pick winded up being the 4th pick in the draft. The LAC pick still remained. "The 3rd selection in the 2011 NBA Draft will belong to the...Utah Jazz". Could it happen? Could Cleveland claim the 1st pick in the draft from a pick that was involved in a Baron Davis/Mo Williams trade!? "The 2nd selection in the 2011 NBA Draft will belong to the....Minnesota Timberwolves". Amazing. The Cleveland Cavaliers will hold the 1st and 4th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, one that was filled with very good talent. Was it fixed? No one is sure, but no one can deny the fact that Cleveland had a lot of luck in that drawing, and after only one season after LeBron's departure, in which he and the Miami Heat came up short against Dallas, Cleveland would have a chance to rebuild the franchise....
The 2011 NBA Draft. Who would it be? The breakout star forward Derrick Williams from Arizona, who possessed a nice game of shooting and rebounding the ball. Or would it be the "mystery" Kyrie Irving, the injury-riddled but talented PG from Duke. Many were split on who Cleveland should have went with. The had two choices: Take Derrick Williams with the 1st pick and then take PG Brandon Knight with the 4th selection. Or they would take Kyrie Irving with the 1st pick and go for a big man, such as Enes Kanter or Jonas Valunciunas. While no one knew for certain, Cleveland knew what they wanted. They wanted Irving and Kanter. So the pick was made to start the night. "With the 1st selection in the 2011 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select PG Kyrie Irving from Duke.
" Cleveland knew for a fact that Derrick Williams would be the second pick, and
, as assumed, he was. Cleveland was hoping
for that the Utah Jazz would take to go for anyone but Kanter. Though CLE has had its way the past couple of months, not everything works out as planned.
The Utah Jazz / The Utah Jazz select
ed potential-filled C Enes Kanter with the 3rd selection. No one is completely sure if CLE panicked after the Kanter selection or what, but they wanted to go for a big. Many assumed Valunciunas, the 7'0" C from Lithuania. However, Cleveland went a different route, PF Tristan Thompson from Texas. He was undersized for the 4, but CLE liked his potential.
...
Cleveland Kyrie Irving showed a lot of promise with Kyrie Irving Cleveland, who looked like a natural on the court. If you did not know he was drafted that past year, you would assume he was a wildly veteran on the court, which was rare to see, especially in a 19 year old kid who only played 11 games of college basketball. Thompson showed to be really raw, as expected, but he showed glimpses of hope for upcoming seasons. The team would end up with another bad season, and would have a good shot of getting a good pick in the upcoming draft, one centered around can't-miss prospect Anthony Davis.
Cleveland had a couple of great options, which included C Andre Drummond and SF Harrison Barnes. However, for the second straight draft, CLE went potential, and took SG Dion Waiters with their selection. Dion Waiters was a great player for Syracuse, but he was not even a starter for the Orange, which led to questions such as "Can Waiters be a starter in the NBA after being a bench man in college?" Valid question, and all anyone could do was wait. Cleveland had another pick in the draft, the 23rd selection. They still wanted a big man from the draft, and they saw North Carolina C Tyler Zeller falling big time. They wanted him, so they wanted to make sure they could get him. They then made a trade with Dallas,
the team who beat LeBron the previous year, in which Dallas would give CLE the 17th pick for a swap with their 23rd pick, with some fillers involved. Cleveland got their big man, and they came out of another draft very strong.
May 22nd, 2013.
The 2013 Draft Lottery. There was the surprise of the Washington Wizards, who had the 7th best odds, being able to have a shot of a top 3 selection. "The 3rd selection in the 2013 NBA Draft will belong to the...Washington Wizards.
" Here we go again. After only two years, Cleveland would have a chance to have the 1st selection in the draft. And only minutes later, millions found out that the Cleveland Cavaliers would have the 1st pick....
(SPACE)again.
There have been rumors of LeBron James, the King who beheaded Cleveland, possibly returning to Cleveland in 2014 if he decides to opt out of a player option. LeBron had already won the NBA Championship for the first time last year, and it was "about damn time,"
according to James. And now he is in the NBA Finals for the 3rd year in a row looking for
a two-peat back-to-back championships. He went to Miami for the rings, and if he already has the rings, some think that he might want to go back to Cleveland and try to finish what he started. Everyone in Cleveland is nuts right now. Some want the King back. Some want nothing to do with him.
Are we witnesses? Or bystanders? Are we witnesses, or bystanders?