If we pick 7th I would have no problems taking Tyler Zeller or John Henson.  Give me size and length, give me a guy that will play D, plays hard and are coachable.

You then try your hardest to sign Eric Gordon, give him a max contract, take a chance. Then try to sign Landry Fields as well to play the 3 or come off the bench.  4 yrs 12 mil would get him.

You then trade Boobie, the Kings pick, the Lakers pick and maybe one of the 2nds and move up to take another young 2 or 3.  Someone like Terrence Jones, Terrence Ross, Austin River, Moe Harkless.

With the 2nd round pick you take the best big or pg available.  I would look at Festus Ezeli, you can never have enough bigs.

Roll into next season with a roster and lineup that looks like this

C - Zeller, Andy, Festus
PF- Andy, Thomas, Samuels
SF - L. Fields, Moe Harkless, L Walton
SG - E. Gordon, L. FIelds, A. Parker, Hudson
PG - Kyrie, Hudson, Sloan

That's a playoff team with still a lot of room to grow and develop.

realphipps wrote: I'm gonna beat the Terrence Ross drum 'til there's nothing left to beat.

MuskieBuck wrote: I still think there is a great prospect that they move up to 4-5. Youa re underestimating the crap factor that is the team.

f0ghorn wrote:

MuskieBuck wrote: I still think there is a great prospect that they move up to 4-5. Youa re underestimating the crap factor that is the team.

4-5 would be alot better - not much chance of the 7 or 8 slots . Not underestimating - just not alot of games left and Tor and Sac have their own "crap"

OhioRaiderNation wrote: It's a lottery system.  A lottery system in which the worst team has a 75% chance of not getting the #1 pick.  Let's not panic if we win a few games.

f0ghorn wrote:

OhioRaiderNation wrote: It's a lottery system.  A lottery system in which the worst team has a 75% chance of not getting the #1 pick.  Let's not panic if we win a few games.

Yes - But my OP shows that if they finish 6th, they will have a 73% chance of getting either the #6 or #7 pick

and a "less than" 25% chance of getting picks 1-2-3 and ZERO chance of getting picks 4-5


finished 4th or 5th will give much better odds of getting in slots 1 through 5

OhioRaiderNation wrote: The Cavs are 2-8 in their last 10... 1-1/2 games out of the 4 spot with 10 left to play.  I'm not criticizing your OP, I'm just saying it's not as if they are on a 10 game winning streak to close the season and take themselves from the #1 to the #10 spot.  Winning a game here or there in the grand scheme is not the end of all hope in the lottery

f0ghorn wrote:

OhioRaiderNation wrote: It's a lottery system.  A lottery system in which the worst team has a 75% chance of not getting the #1 pick.  Let's not panic if we win a few games.

Yes - But my OP shows that if they finish 6th, they will have a 73% chance of getting either the #6 or #7 pick

and a "less than" 25% chance of getting picks 1-2-3 and ZERO chance of getting picks 4-5


finished 4th or 5th will give much better odds of getting in slots 1 through 5

f0ghorn wrote:

OhioRaiderNation wrote: The Cavs are 2-8 in their last 10... 1-1/2 games out of the 4 spot with 10 left to play.  I'm not criticizing your OP, I'm just saying it's not as if they are on a 10 game winning streak to close the season and take themselves from the #1 to the #10 spot.  Winning a game here or there in the grand scheme is not the end of all hope in the lottery

f0ghorn wrote:

OhioRaiderNation wrote: It's a lottery system.  A lottery system in which the worst team has a 75% chance of not getting the #1 pick.  Let's not panic if we win a few games.

Yes - But my OP shows that if they finish 6th, they will have a 73% chance of getting either the #6 or #7 pick

and a "less than" 25% chance of getting picks 1-2-3 and ZERO chance of getting picks 4-5


finished 4th or 5th will give much better odds of getting in slots 1 through 5

No I agree that you are just saying what my OP was trying to point out  -that  1-2 games will only drop them 2-3 slots - BUT that is a really BIG drop in terms of lottery odds - the drop from 4-5 to 6-7 probably takes them out of range of the first tier  of star players  AD / MGK ect ect

To be fair to the Cavs, they have only won 3 out of their last 17 games (passing Detroit and New Jersey for the race to the ping pong ball).

I'm pretty sure they play more d-leaguers than anyone else in the league, they seem to have pre-emptively shutdown their two best players for the remainder of the seasons, and at no time in the last few years has anyone accused Jamison and Parker of winning games for the Cavs.

The point is, outside of the historically bad performance in Charlotte, I'm not sure anyone in the NBA is tanking better than the Cavs.

Maybe the T-Wolves are tanking better recently, but really they've absolutely perfected the art of tanking over the years.  Expecting the Cavs to out tank the T-Wolves would be akin to expecting the Cavs to sweep the Bulls in a 7 game series.


I understand the frustration of playing Parker/Jamison when it appears guys like Hudson and Thompson would benefit more from the mintues.  But I honestly think the Cavs would win more games with guys like Hudson, Sloan, Harangody, and Harris playing for their NBA careers rather than Parker and Jamison riding out a contract.

Aardvark wrote: And to think a month ago, the Cavs had the 10th worst record.  And three weeks before that, they were just outside the window peeking in at the 8th and final playoff spot.

Since we woke up on Washington's Birthday, this is how the league's bottom feeders have fared:

Pistons-  11-13 (.458)
Nets-       11-14 (.440)
Hornets-   9-17 (.346)
Kings-       9-18  (.333)
Wizards-   7-19  (.269)
Cavs-         6-20  (.230)
Bobcats-   3-23   (.115)

But no matter. Other teams somehow know how to tank and Cleveland doesn't.  Or something.

I'm thinking the Cavs and Kings will finish with identical records for the fourth worst record.  The Cavs will then lose the coin flip for the additional ping pong ball. 

And then some pathetic mouth breather will whine about how the Cavs just didn't do enough-- that they could have taken a dive in this game or that game so that they wouldn't be in this position of picking fifth instead of fourth.

As if the first four college players to be taken in this draft are Magic, Bird, Jordan and Olajuwon. 
And then the next grouping had Marcus Fizer, Stromile Swift, Adam Morrison and Donnie Darko Milicic.

Aardvark wrote: And to think a month ago, the Cavs had the 10th worst record.  And three weeks before that, they were just outside the window peeking in at the 8th and final playoff spot.

Since we woke up on Washington's Birthday, this is how the league's bottom feeders have fared:

Pistons-  11-13 (.458)
Nets-       11-14 (.440)
Hornets-   9-17 (.346)
Kings-       9-18  (.333)
Wizards-   7-19  (.269)
Cavs-         6-20  (.230)
Bobcats-   3-23   (.115)

But no matter. Other teams somehow know how to tank and Cleveland doesn't.  Or something.

I'm thinking the Cavs and Kings will finish with identical records for the fourth worst record.  The Cavs will then lose the coin flip for the additional ping pong ball. 

And then some pathetic mouth breather will whine about how the Cavs just didn't do enough-- that they could have taken a dive in this game or that game so that they wouldn't be in this position of picking fifth instead of fourth.

As if the first four college players to be taken in this draft are Magic, Bird, Jordan and Olajuwon. 
And then the next grouping had Marcus Fizer, Stromile Swift, Adam Morrison and Donnie Darko Milicic.

Losing to (oops, I mean beating) Toronto last Friday really hurt, but the key is today and tomorrow. We play a Washington team that lost by 40 last night--but we play them in the second game of a back to back on the road, where we have not fared well.

The second big game is tomorrow, versus Orlando. Orlando has been struggling as of late and will be without Howard. But, we play the third game of a back to back to back in three cities, so my guess is we'll be worn out.

We really have no business winnning either game. Okay, I guess we should have beaten Charlotte. But other than Washington at home the last week, we should (could) lose out.

Toronto has surprised me with their win versus Boston yesterday after shutting down their big guy for a mysterious ailment, but management cannot control the play of the also-rans, no more than the Cavs can control the great play of Hudson in Toronto 8 days ago.

That's the rub. Scrubs play well. Playoff teams down the road rest their starters. It should be a wild road.

But Sacramento is the key. They have more talent than us and keep on losing. They do play and should beat Charlotte on the road, which makes me think we tie them for 4th and do the coin flip or whatever it is they do.

But keep eyes on New Orleans, who is only 2 games ahead of us (okay, behind us). They have been winning and now have a new owner, so their spirits may have been lifted. It's possible they pass us, getting us 4th.

Fourth is key, and not even for the top pick, but a top 5 pick. There's a fair amount of odds disparity of getting a top 5 pick when you move from 5 to 4. I'm assuming we do not get the top pick, I just want a top five pick, although, there are about 8-9 players who could help us next year who may develop into all stars, and everyone after 1 has some question marks about them. 

RedZone1 wrote:

Toronto has surprised me with their win versus Boston yesterday after shutting down their big guy for a mysterious ailment, but management cannot control the play of the also-rans, no more than the Cavs can control the great play of Hudson in Toronto 8 days ago.

Why is it all doom and gloom around here when they beat one of the handful of teams worse than them in the league?  Look, let's assume we can't pass Sacramento, New Orleans, Washington & Charlotte.  Toronto still has games with New Jersey and Detroit and they just beat Boston. New Jersey has Toronto left and Philly (who they played recently back to back and split the 2 games).  Golden State has New Orleans and a rapidly declining Minnesota left.  Detroit has the Cavs and that same Minnesota team.

There are winnable games for those teams and they are winning games (most of them at a higher rate than the Cavs (who are 3-7 in their last 10).  Toronto is 5-5, New Jersey 6-4, Golden State 2-8, Detroit 5-5.  Why are we pretending like every team above and below us is in a free fall not winning a single game while the Cavs are winning meaningless games shooting them straight passed the free fallers in the standings?

OhioRaiderNation wrote:

Why is it all doom and gloom around here when they beat one of the handful of teams worse than them in the league?  Look, let's assume we can't pass Sacramento, New Orleans, Washington & Charlotte.  Toronto still has games with New Jersey and Detroit and they just beat Boston. New Jersey has Toronto left and Philly (who they played recently back to back and split the 2 games).  Golden State has New Orleans and a rapidly declining Minnesota left.  Detroit has the Cavs and that same Minnesota team.

There are winnable games for those teams and they are winning games (most of them at a higher rate than the Cavs (who are 3-7 in their last 10).  Toronto is 5-5, New Jersey 6-4, Golden State 2-8, Detroit 5-5.  Why are we pretending like every team above and below us is in a free fall not winning a single game while the Cavs are winning meaningless games shooting them straight passed the free fallers in the standings?

RedZone1 wrote: The Cavs really need to lose out. Why can't they pull up the rest of their d-leaguers like non playoff baseball teams do? There is no shame in that. No more shame than the top teams resting their starters to avoid injury.

What is playing Jamison and Parker 40 minutes as they have been really going to accomplish? Neither will be here next year, so what is the reason?

adogbtown wrote:

OhioRaiderNation wrote:

Why is it all doom and gloom around here when they beat one of the handful of teams worse than them in the league?  Look, let's assume we can't pass Sacramento, New Orleans, Washington & Charlotte.  Toronto still has games with New Jersey and Detroit and they just beat Boston. New Jersey has Toronto left and Philly (who they played recently back to back and split the 2 games).  Golden State has New Orleans and a rapidly declining Minnesota left.  Detroit has the Cavs and that same Minnesota team.

There are winnable games for those teams and they are winning games (most of them at a higher rate than the Cavs (who are 3-7 in their last 10).  Toronto is 5-5, New Jersey 6-4, Golden State 2-8, Detroit 5-5.  Why are we pretending like every team above and below us is in a free fall not winning a single game while the Cavs are winning meaningless games shooting them straight passed the free fallers in the standings?

We've fallen behind Sacramento and we'll likely fall behind Toronto as well, as they're missing their best player, Bargnani, for the remainder of the season.  We're only 2 games ahead of New Jersey & Detroit, and we have a game remaining vs the Pistons, so I think we will catch or pass one of those teams in the standings.  All that said, I think we end up picking 7th or 8th.  Pretty much right back where we started.