Cleveland Cavaliers: Why Fans Should Be Happy They Are Losing

Fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers have been despondent over their team's horrific season. 

The team is currently on a 13-game losing streak, losing 23 of their last 24 games and given their difficult schedule the next few weeks, possibly on the way to challenging the worst losing streak in NBA history of 23 games set by the 1995-96 Vancouver Grizzlies and the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets.

However, Cavs fans are missing the big picture. They should WANT the Cavs to LOSE this year! What's the point of winning any games? They're not making the playoffs and winning games just means they have worse chances in the lottery. 

What the team needs is at least two consecutive No. 1 draft picks. That will start their road back into the playoffs and maybe a few years down the line, those former No. 1 picks will be experienced enough where the Cavaliers might attract some free agents.
 
This is a long-term project. Yes, LeBron James leaving set them back eight years. No, they may never get back to the level they were when they had LeBron playing MVP-level.

But they're not going to be the worst team in professional sports forever.
 
Just getting the No. 1 pick in the draft this year won't be enough. Guys like Perry Jones, Kyrie Irving and Terrence Jones won't change the game like a Blake Griffin or even John Wall. But they might turn out to be decent players, maybe even All-Star backups after four or five years in the league.

So the Cavs will probably, and quite frankly SHOULD, tank the season again in 2011-12 which will give them another high lottery pick. Obviously, if a transcendent talent comes along, they need the No. 1 pick.

It's the difference between a Blake Griffin and a Hasheem Thabeet.

You're saying "who?" Yes, that's the point.
 
A lucky (or unlucky) bounce of the lottery ball is the difference between a player that averages 22.5 points, 12.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists and a player that averages 1.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.1 assists. 

Let's see, that's a disparity of 21.3 points, 11.2 boards and 3.3 dishes PER GAME. Yes, just ONE position in the lottery, the difference between the No. 1 and the No. 2 overall pick.
 
The good thing is that Blake Griffin continues to show the world that players that can dominate like LeBron James don't come just once in 20 years. After all, Kobe was drafted seven years before LeBron and Shaq five years before that and in between has been a lot of great players from Tim Duncan to Kevin Garnett to Dwight Howard to Dwyane Wade, in LeBron's draft class even.
 
Of course, there are years when there isn't much talent in a draft class like 2006 and there seems to be as many of these as there are of classes like 2003.

So far, the class of 2006 has produced just two All-Stars, one in Brandon Roy, who's career is already on the downhill, and Rajon Rondo, who is good, but overrated because he's a point guard that balls with three future Hall of Famers that can finish plays.
 
And it's taken five years for some of the others in that draft class to finally break out and put in All-Star-caliber years, like LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay.

And who knows, what if the Cavs waste their No. 1 pick on a guy like Andrea Bargnani or Adam Morrison, guys that were way hyped and then become pretty much busts for the first years of their career?
 
So, the draft route isn't guaranteed and one can see the same teams in the lottery almost year after year so it's possible that the draft DOESN'T help either.

But the Cavaliers don't have many options and with owner Dan Gilbert refusing to spend any money after LeBron left and making boneheaded decisions, like demanding to keep guys like J.J. Hickson instead of letting him go in a trade for Amar'e Stoudemire (which was possible last season and which would have kept LeBron in Cleveland and likely won the Cavaliers their first NBA championship), it doesn't look like free agency will be the answer for the team either. 

The ONLY answer it seems, is the NBA draft, how the Cavaliers got LeBron James in the first place and which they should pray will bring them a new "king."