Cavaliers win NBA Draft Lottery
The Cavaliers won the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday. Kentucky's Nerlens Noel is expected to be a top five selection. Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday, giving them the right to pick first overall in the next month's draft.
The Orlando Magic will pick second, followed by the Washington Wizards. It was the second time in three years the Cavaliers won the lottery. In 2011, they used the top selection to choose Duke guard Kyrie Irving, who went on to become the league's rookie of the year.
The Magic had the league's worst record and had a 25 percent chance of the ping pong balls handing them the first overall pick in the draft. The Charlotte Bobcats (19.9 percent), Cleveland (15.6 percent), Phoenix Suns (11.9 percent) and New Orleans Pelicans (8.8 percent) were next as far as odds were concerned.
The Charlotte Bobcats will select fourth, followed by the Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Portland Trailblazers rounding out the top 10.
The worst team has won the NBA Draft Lottery three of the previous 23 tries. Each of the 14 lottery teams were assigned four-number combinations based on their record with 1,000 possible.
Completing the rest of the lottery selections are the Portland Trailblazers, the Oklahoma City Thunder (via Toronto Raptors), Dallas Mavericks and the Utah Jazz.
Some of the top prospects expected to be drafted in the lottery include Kentucky center Nerlens Noel, Kansas guard Ben McLemore, Georgetown forward Otto Porter and college player of the year Michigan guard Trey Burke.
