Cleveland Cavaliers

Are the Indians for real? Who do the Cavaliers like in this year's draft? Plain Dealer sports columnist Terry Pluto answered those questions and more in his weekly podcast with cleveland.com's Dan Labbe.

It's that time of year where Cavs' fans cling their hopes to a bunch of ping-pong balls landing in the proper order! Don't be that person who misses seeing the Cavaliers get their third first overall pick in the last 11 years. Who? The 14 NBA teams who didn't make the playoffs. When? About 8:25 P.M. EST Where? Disney/ABC's Times Square Studios, New York City, New York Where on my eyeballs? ESPN / WatchESPN.com What to Expect: The Cavaliers can end up selecting anywhere from 1-6 on June 27, depending on how the balls fall tonight. Despite ending up with the third best chances at the top pick (at 15.6%), the Cavaliers still only have a 46.9% chance of landing a top 3 pick. Their most likely landing spot is actually the 5th selection overall, at 26.5%. In fact, the third spot in these proceedings has the least reliable predictable indication of a landing spot, as the top-5 picks all have somewhere between a 15.6% chance and a 26.5% chance. That means you can expect the unexpected tonight when Dan Gilbert's son Nick takes the stage for the third time, The first time he took the stage, Kyrie Irving ended up as a Cleveland Cavalier, so hopefully the team has similar luck this time Here is a full chart explaining the different draft probabilities (as taken from Sports' Illustrated on Monday): (SI.com) We'll have an open thread for the lottery just as we do for games here at Fear The Sword, so stay tuned for that. It's an exciting time, and we should have a lot of really cool stuff for you guys this week after we actually know the order of picks.

The lottery is finally here and everyone is eager to have their official draft position solidified. Last year Cavs fans everywhere freaked out when the ping pong balls (aka David Stern) gave Cleveland the fourth selection, which meant Chris Grant and Co wouldn't be able to add Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, or Bradley Beal to the promising young roster. But after a year of the Dion Waiters Experience, the disappointment of a year ago has significantly diminished. So going into the lottery tonight, which picks are you hoping to get? Will only a top 2 or 3 selection calm your nerves over the next month or are you confident the Cavs will grab a star regardless of position? Vote and give me your rationale in the comments! The lottery is finally here and everyone is eager to have their official draft position solidified. Last year Cavs fans everywhere freaked out when the ping pong balls (aka David Stern) gave Cleveland the fourth selection, which meant Chris Grant and Co wouldn't be able to add Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, or Bradley Beal to the promising young roster. But after a year of the Dion Waiters Experience, the disappointment of a year ago has significantly diminished. So going into the lottery tonight, which picks are you hoping to get? Will only a top 2 or 3 selection calm your nerves over the next month or are you confident the Cavs will grab a star regardless of position? Vote and give me your rationale in the comments! Poll What's the lowest draft spot you would be happy with? #1- aka Noel or Bust #2 #3 #4 #5 #6- aka "I have total faith in Chris Grant" 2 votes | Results

Every year at roughly this time, representatives from 14 NBA teams gather in one of the most uncomfortable collections of current and former players, old, rich white men and Nick Gilbert the world has ever seen to battle and win favor with the gods, David Stern and Adam Silver, using the most devastating and soul-crushing weapon the world has ever known: probability. The winner will have the chance to draft a 6-11 center with a bum knee, a 6-4 athletic marvel with a picture-pretty shot who has been criticized by, among others, his college coach for not being “assertive” enough, or taking a pass and, for the first year, utilizing the option of forgoing this year’s selection for the same slotted spot next year. Yeah, just kidding about that last option. Sorry. Outside of actual in-game action, the single best on-screen moment in the NBA season is (shockingly) the draft lottery. More specifically, it is the lead up to the lottery results, when each team’s representative is introduced and captured on camera, if briefly, in amazing comic squirm. It’s the NBA’s version of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Consider the following: 1.) This is, essentially, the NBA’s roll call of its losers for this (and, in most cases, several) season(s). For all the build up of dangling this year’s best college players in front of these win-starved teams, the only way they can broadcast this beautiful train wreck is to attach it to a playoff game. So, all of these team reps, knowing their shortcomings are being paraded out by the league in advance of a Conference playoff game, seem to call out to the audience from behind watery eyes, “Please, this is the part of the season where we get to disappear! Let us go away! Why are you making us do this?!” 2.) There is that beautiful moment when the draft’s winner is assured and we get to see the look of utter disgust on the face of the runner up, whose team is often more deserving than the winner for being even more bereft of luck. Remember David Kahn’s passive-agressive comments when Nick Gilbert won the Cavs the 2011 draft? Remember Jerry West in 2003 when he realized that the Grizzlies had a chance to draft LeBron James, only to be reminded that a first rounder with only number one protection is always too steep a price for Otis Thorpe? The players in attendance seem generally uninterested in representing their teams, while the team owners and GMs care a little too much. 3.) The fall-out of the draft lottery is a fascinating study in fan base psychology/paranoia. It can’t be a coincidence that the Cavs got the number one pick the year after LeBron left, can it? And you say the New Orleans Hornets got the number one pick following a year that saw them owned and operated by the NBA? Huh. So, who is in line this year? Seeing as how the worst teams will want to still be bad for next year’s boffo draft class — and given all the poo-pooing prognosticators are doing on this year’s group of young men — we’re probably in line for a team with a little bit of talent already jumping up and grabbing the top spot. Maybe that’s a team like Portland (league still owes them for Greg Oden), Minnesota (league owes it to Kevin Love … for some reason) or Oklahoma City (wherein every TV set across the country simultaneously explodes). The relative down-ness of this year’s draft just makes it all the more awkward. Tonight, someone will inevitably/hopefully make some thinly veiled comment or disgusted facial expression all over Nerlens Noel or Ben McLemore. The NBA would like us to believe that its draft lottery is an exciting event promising the chance for franchise altering change. But it’s actually the ugly side of luck. The fact that these 14 team reps are gathered in a broadcast studio is because they are not the lucky ones. The lucky ones are the ones still playing. These 14 team reps are put (arguably unfairly) in

Get your questions ready and join Terry Pluto today at noon as he talks Cleveland sports.

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With many Cavaliers' fans already having their eyes on the draft, I've been scouting college basketball pretty intensely over the past couple of months. That being said, we are going to try to provide you with as many scouting reports as we can until the draft on June 27th. Today, we present Gorgui Dieng of Louisville. Dieng was possibly the most important piece of this season's NCAA champion Louisville Cardinals. His first name is somewhat apropos in this draft. "Gorgui" means "the old one" in Wolof, the native language of Senegal. At 23 years old, Dieng is certainly an old early entrant into the NBA draft. Along with being named to the First-Team All-Big East, he was also named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year. Measurements and Athleticism: Dieng stands in at 6'11" with a 7'4" wingspan, which looks even bigger on tape. He's about 230 pounds, having put on about 30 pounds since leaving Huntington Prep in West Virginia (same school as Andrew Wiggins). At the combine, he had the second-highest standing reach of anyone measured behind Rudy Gobert. He's very agile, moves well in space and laterally, and has some pretty decent leaping ability. He's also got pretty good stamina for a center, as he played nearly the full game on multiple occasions for the Cardinals. Offense: Dieng's got some potential on this end, but it's not particularly due to his post game. It's a pretty rudimentary, and he showed absolutely no left hand after breaking it earlier this season. He does have a pretty good touch around the rim - he shot about 72% at the rim this season according to hoop-math.com -- but his footwork seems slow and his instincts don't seem entirely natural from the low block. He can't really get his own shot when posting up a defender because it's easy to anticipate his only consistent move: a dribble into a right-handed hook shot from about 6 feet. It worked in college because he was longer and more athletic than other big men; but in the NBA everyone will be his size, therefore he will need to diversify his post game. Where he does show a lot of potential offensively is from the high post. First off, he's an extraordinary passer. While surveying and looking over the defense with his height, Dieng hits cutters at the rim and easily finds the open three point shot as the defense collapses around him. To top it off, he's shown fantastic potential as a set shooter from 14-17 feet. He has a high release point that makes it near impossible to block with excellent, consistent mechanics -- he keeps his right hand directly under the ball and his release point is very consistent. Finally, this is a small thing but it's worth mentioning: Dieng is an excellent screener. He was the catalyst for springing Peyton Siva free in Louisville's pick-and-roll-heavy offense innumerable times. He sets a super wide base with his long legs, making it difficult for defenders to get around him. He's not great at rolling to the hoop yet, but he could be an excellent candidate for pick-and-pop plays with his jump shot. Rebounding: Dieng is a solid rebounder who improved each of the last three seasons. One way that he should be able to get quick buckets around the rim is as an offensive rebounder, as he finished second and third over the past two seasons respectively in the Big East in offense rebounding. He's also a pretty solid defensive rebounder because of his superb motor and great length. He attacks the ball above the rim and has soft hands that allow him to secure the ball. He finished second in the Big East in Defensive Rebound Percentage and in overall rebounds per game, at 9.4 per game. Defense: Dieng is one of the best defensive big men in this draft. He's truly one of the guys in this draft that can affect a game without scoring (see: Final Four game versus Wichita State). As the true anchor of the Louisville defense, which finished number one in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted defensive rating, Dieng was th