Now, Cavs' real work begins. (NBA).

Warren Thaler, president of Gund Investment Corp. and representative of the Cavaliers at the NBA draft lottery, never had been to a lottery before, let alone one this important. A No. 1 pick would mean local hero LeBron James and an influx of cash and cache for the league's worst-attended and most downtrodden team. Thaler was nervous, trying to convince himself that it would be OK for Cleveland to wind up with the No. 5 pick in the draft No. 5 was the worst the Cavs could do, after all. In reality, Cleveland already had printed a "James 23" jersey in the Cavs' new wine-and-gold team colors, and if that jersey had to be sent into mothballs because Cleveland wound up fifth, Thaler knew it would not be OK. Far from it.

"I think I would have been up for a public stoning if I had brought back No. 5," Thaler says. "Lucky for me."

Lucky for all of Ohio that the lottery balls bounced Cleveland's way and the local LeBron lovefest now is under way from Sandusky to Ashtabula. The Cavaliers suddenly are the hot young team in the NBA, sort of a Clippers of the Midwest. But let's keep in mind that, for all the hot air that was blown about the young Clippers, the team has yet to amount to anything. Unless the Cavs want to wind up like the Clippers, there is plenty of work to be done, beginning with acknowledging that the team is in disarray and that the addition of one player--no matter how thoroughly hyped--is not going to solve everything.

"I worry about (expectations)," says Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund. "I would have to caution everyone in our market not to have too high expectations for us this year. We have a whole team we have to worry about."

It is a team that, at the start of this week, was without a coach--Gund's first priority. The two targets were Jeff Van Gundy and Paul Silas, and Gund acknowledged that, had the lottery not turned out so well, the team's chances at landing either would have been questionable. Then things changed. "We feel it is a very attractive job," Gund said after the lottery. "We need a strong coach."

The job is attractive, provided there are more changes in personnel. The Cavaliers must decide whether James can be the team's point guard and whether a lineup of James, Ricky Davis, Darius Miles, Carlos Boozer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas will work.

Realistically, it can't. It's a defensive nightmare and, offensively, it is muddled. The James-at-point experiment is worth a shot because he has the ability to play the position, and there is not much available at point guard among free agents. But can James play with Davis, another wing player who dominates the ball? And where does that leave last year's lottery pick, Dajuan Wagner? Davis could be shipped out in the shuffle.