The Cleveland Cavaliers lost again on Tuesday night in a game where it didn't seem like the team was even trying to win. The 125-90 loss at home was one of the ugliest of the season for the Cavaliers and continues the trend of losing for the franchise. It raises a question about whether the Cavaliers are losing games on purpose in order to get a better position in the 2012 NBA Draft.
In the 2002-03 season, it also seemed like the Cavaliers were losing games on purpose, as the team plummeted to 17-65 when a certain high school phenom from Akron decided to enter the draft. Cleveland ended up tied for the worst record in the league, won the lottery and then selected LeBron James with that first overall pick. In the 2010-11 season the Cavaliers were just as bad, playing to a 19-63 record before nabbing two of the top four selections in the 2011 NBA Draft. That netted the team Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson and presumably enough talent to put more games in the win column.
It has become pretty obvious to most NBA analysts (and fans) that the top pick in the 2012 NBA Draft will become Kentucky's Anthony Davis. He could really help out the Cavaliers, which makes the scenario that the franchise is losing on purpose again start to ring true. Cleveland has gone from a team contending for either the seventh or eighth playoff spot to one that has no spark and simply is not playing competitive basketball. Losing by 35 points is pretty bad, especially when the opponent (the Spurs) is trying to rest its players.
The Cavaliers have now lost eight games in a row, dropping all the way to a 17-34 record on the season and giving the team the fourth worst record in the NBA. That's a lot of ping pong balls to possibly net Davis and it going to make things pretty interesting this postseason if the Cavaliers continue to look like a NBA team that couldn't compete on the high school level. The question becomes whether intentionally not putting forth the best effort every night is ethical or whether it has simply become an acceptable practice to tank games in order to improve draft position.
Teams like the 7-44 Charlotte Bobcats and 13-40 New Orleans Hornets can only sit back and wonder what it's like to have as much talent as the Cavaliers and simply fail to win games. How will the Cavaliers losing games affect everyone else? Well the Portland Trail Blazers have their own pick and then that of the New Jersey Nets, if the Nets don't end up as one of the top three teams selecting in the draft. The 20-33 Detroit Pistons could use a player like Davis to put fans in the stands and the Hornets could turn into a nice asset if the franchise drafted Davis.
The prospect of one franchise getting the top pick in the draft for the third time in 10 years seems pretty ridiculous, but it might just become a reality this basketball offseason. Does this prove that the league needs to overall the whole process to eliminate potential tanking?
More From YCN:
Blazers Fire McMillan, Trade Wallace
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Blazers Take Out Thunder
Blazers Predicted to Miss Playoffs
Sources:
Blazers Deadline Moves
Blazers_Team_Stats
Blazers Full Schedule
Blazers Team Page
Blazers Updated Roster
*Ryan is a Northwest bred sports fan that has been a Portland Trail Blazers fan for years. He has high hopes that the Blazers can make it to the Western Conference Playoffs again this year.
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