The Basketball Gods Love Cleveland: Cavaliers Get No. 1 Pick for Second Straight Year, Third in 4 Years

Move over 29 other teams in the NBA, the basketball gods favor one team in the NBA draft lottery: the Cleveland Cavaliers. For the second straight year and third in four years, the franchise won a No. 1 pick in the annual NBA Draft getting the top selection in 2014 after picking first in 2013.

How lucky were the Cavaliers in this lottery? They were pegged at 1.7 per cent (9th among lotto teams) to win the No. 1 pick.

Luck of the Ping pong balls...Very exciting!!!

— Kyrie Irving (@KyrieIrving) May 21, 2014

How lucky were the Cavaliers the past years? Popular sports writer Bill Barnwell shared the rough odds on the Cavs winning the three No. 1 picks:

Odds of the Cavaliers winning 2011, 2013, and 2014 lotteries: 13,467-to-1. — Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) May 21, 2014

Then again, winning the lotto is not an assurance for the much-maligned franchise to improve their roster.

Just last year in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Cavaliers selected Anthony Bennett as the top pick. The franchise was criticized for the selection and the critics were proven right as Bennett registered lowly numbers in his rookie season as most dubbed him as one of the worst No. 1 picks of all-time.

Should the Cavaliers prefer to keep the pick—they do have the option to trade it away for a star like Kevin Love or Carmelo Anthony— they can choose from blue chip prospects Joel Embiid (Kansas), Jabari Parker (Duke) or Andrew Wiggins (Kansas) among others.

Here’s the order for the lotto picks for the 2014 NBA Draft set on June 26.

1. Cavaliers
2. Bucks
3. 76ers
4. Magic
5. Jazz
6. Celtics
7. Lakers
8. Kings
9. Hornets
10. 76ers
11. Nuggets
12. Magic
13. Wolves
14. Suns