CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Maybe the third time back in the lottery will be the charm.
While they won’t say it publicly, that’s what Koby Altman and the Cavaliers are hoping for Tuesday night.
The Cavs enter the 2021 NBA Draft Lottery with the fifth-best odds to win the No. 1 overall pick after losing a coinflip with the Thunder for the fourth-best odds in late May.
“It’s like when you catch a wish, you gotta blow it,” Altman said when asked what he may opt for when it comes to a lucky charm Tuesday night. “You can’t tell the person what the wish is, so we’ll keep that internal.”
Altman will serve as the Cavs representative for the lottery.
Each of the last two years the Cavs tied for the best odds to win the lottery at 14% while sitting in the No. 2 lottery position, but they fell out of the top three slots and ended up with the No. 5 selection both times netting them Darius Garland in 2019 and Isaac Okoro in 2020.
“I think we’ve done remarkably well through the draft so far,” Altman said.
Altman is bullish on the young core he has put in place over the last three years.
“The future is really, really bright with what we’ve put together through the draft,” Altman said. “We’re going to add a talented young piece, but the plan moving forward is to supplement that young core.”
In 2018 the Cavs tipped their second post LeBron rebuild off with the selection of Collin Sexton eighth overall, part of the proceeds from the Kyrie Irving trade with Boston prior to James’ final season with the team.
Cleveland has a 45.1% chance to land a top-4 pick, but they have fallen out of the top four spots in each of the past three drafts. The Cavs have an 11.5% chance to win the top pick, 11.4% for the second and 11.2% to get the third pick in the draft.
The worst slot the Cavs could end up with is ninth, which would be a significant setback.
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Altman said. “If something shook out and we had a top pick one of those years, maybe it would have been faster. We weren’t gifted that and that’s okay. We have to grind, roll up our sleeves and that’s what we’ve done these past three years.
“We’ve replenished our draft stock. We have young, talented players that need more time. It’s really tough to ask four 22 or younger guys to get us to the playoffs without help from veterans.”
Cleveland has won 60 games combined, the lowest win total in the NBA, over the last three seasons sans James.
The Rockets, Pistons and Magic have the best odds to win the No. 1 pick in the draft at 14%. The three teams have 13.2% odds to get the No.
2 selection and 12.7% odds for the third pick.
Regardless where they land, Altman remains confident they’ll land another young impact player.
“It’s a really deep draft,” Altman said. “We certainly want to add size, athleticism.
“We’ve got dynamic playmakers that really compliment each other.”
The Cavs have won the NBA Draft Lottery five times since it was adopted in 1985 – 1986 (Brad Daugherty), 2003 (LeBron James), 2011 (Kyrie Irving via the LA Clippers), 2013 (Anthony Bennett) and 2014 (Andrew Wiggins).