NBA News Wire
Cavaliers win draft lottery — again
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
The Cleveland Cavaliers struggle to win games on the court, but they know how to win the NBA’s draft lottery.
For the second year in a row and the third time in four years, the Cavaliers will select first overall in the draft this year.
Despite having only a 1.7 percent chance of winning the lottery — the ninth-best odds — Cleveland emerged as the lottery victor again Tuesday.
The Milwaukee Bucks, who finished with the league’s worst record in 2013-14 and had a 25 percent chance of winning the lottery, will pick second.
The Philadelphia 76ers, who endured a 26-game losing streak en route to posting the second-worst record this season, will make the third selection. The 76ers had a 19.9 percent opportunity of winning the lottery.
In 2011, Cleveland finished with the second-worst record in the league but still earned the right to pick guard Kyrie Irving of Duke with the top selection.
Last year, the Cavaliers had the third-best chance of winning the lottery, but they came out on top and chose forward Anthony Bennett of UNLV.
After the Cavaliers, Bucks and 76ers, the rest of the lottery picks will be made, in order, by the Orlando Magic, the Utah Jazz, the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Sacramento Kings, the Charlotte Hornets, the 76ers, the Denver Nuggets, the Magic, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns.
The top picks in this year’s draft, which will be held June 26, are expected to include two Kansas teammates: center Joel Embiid and forward Andrew Wiggins. Other highly touted prospects include Kentucky forward Julius Randle and Duke forward Jabari Parker.
The Los Angeles Lakers, in the lottery for the first time since 2005, fell one spot in the order to seventh. In 30 years of draft lotteries, the Lakers were participants only in 1994, 2005 and this year, and they never won the top spot.
The Boston Celtics also are still looking for their first lottery win despite participating 12 times. They slipped one spot to sixth this year.
