It has now been over a week and a half since the lottery balls bounced around in the hopper and netted the Cleveland Cavaliers the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft. This is not an ideal situation for the team to be in, but that does not mean that a productive player cannot be attained. It is up to Chris Grant and his team to maximize the value with his four picks between the first and second rounds.
A lot of noise is coming from seemingly everywhere that the Cavs are dead-set in drafting Harrison Barnes out of UNC. Considering that Barnes is a small forward, he could really help fill a position of need for the franchise. Much is made of his inability to create his own shot and lack of athleticism, which are both valid concerns. Personally, I am not crazy about Harrison Barnes, but I can get on board with him if Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Bradley Beal are off of the draft board by the time the Cavs pick.
Common sense would dictate that the Cavs probably have not made a decision yet. There are a lot of workouts and interviews left to conduct. There is certainly a lot of smoke coming from the Harrison Barnes to the Cavs rumor mill, but one would expect the Cavs to do their due diligence to ensure that the best possible player is selected. As I have been saying for over a year, the Cavs have lost a lot of games in order to get as high of a draft pick as they did. It is important to make the very most of their draft pick and not make any decisions without really thinking it through.
The Cavs have the fourth, twenty-fourth, thirty-third and thirty-fourth picks in the draft. A lot can happen on June 28th and it is expected that the Cavs will be looking to move out of some of those draft picks. Having four rookies and two sophomores on one team does not coincide with the “veteran leadership” mantra that the franchise had last year.
There are a lot of question marks surrounding many of the players. The truth is that although we have an idea of what the strengths and weaknesses are of each player are, we really will not know if they are legitimate NBA players for a little bit of time. We can look at past drafts to see what kind of players are taken at four and twenty-four to see how history has treated those selections. In order to get a better idea of what the talent level was at those specific draft picks, I included the selection made directly before and after where the Cavs are slated to pick on June 28th.
2000:
3: Darius Miles
4: Marcus Fizer
5: Mike Miller
23: Deshawn Stevenson
24: Dalibor Bagaric
25: Jake Tsakalidis
The NBA lottery is a game of chance and luck. Tact, skill and technique are not something that help a team succeed or fail in the lottery. It is simple a matter of odds and landing the lucky numbers.
After they unveil the 68 team bracket on Selection Sunday each year, people go on the internet and write “Tips to Winning your March Madness Pool.” It’s filled with educational caveats like: Don’t pick 15 and 16 seeds; always pick a 13 and 12 seed to upset a 4 and 5 seed; avoid picking a team seeded lower than (blank) to make the Final Four, etc., etc. They back all of their advice up with statistics compiled from previous years in a attempt to sound intelligent and credible, but at the end of the day they’re not doing anyone much of a service when it comes to helping them fill out their bracket. I'm prepared to offer much of the same eroneous advice for what should be March Madness' second cousin—NBA lottery night, or Lottery Lunacy as I've coined it. 
