NBA: The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Nerlens Noel marshmallow experiment

In the early 70's, child psychologists from Stanford gave young children a choice: a marshmallow now, or two marshmallows to be given when the tester came back after around 15 minutes. The children who were able to wait, usually went on to live better lives, according to follow-up studies.

Cleveland Cavaliers, here's a marshmallow, the number one overall pick in the 2013 draft. If you select Nerlens Noel, the talented center who's rehabbing from an ACL tear in his left knee, you could suck enough to get back into the lottery and maybe, just maybe, select scoring machine Andrew Wiggins. Or settle for 'consolation prizes' like Jabari Parker or Julius Randle.

A second marshmallow, by any name, tastes just as sweet.

[Related: Cavaliers win draft lotto, get number one overall pick in 2013]

Alternately, they can do what some rumors have them doing, selecting the most ready-to-go prospect in the draft, small forward Otto Porter, or trading the pick for veteran help.

Because the Cavs genuinely believe they can make a return to the playoffs in the 2013-14 season.

Because lucky talisman Nick Gilbert, son of owner Dan Gilbert, said that he doesn't expect to be back in the lottery show next year, wishing on pingpong balls.

They're not extremely delusional. Despite the Cavaliers finishing with the third-worst record in the league, the East is still likely going to be, well, the Eastern Conference next year, with one, maybe two teams with sub-.500 records breaking in to the best eight, while the ninth and tenth teams in the West feel cheated.

Yes there's opportunity there for the Cavs, especially if they get full seasons from the likes of Kyrie Irving (missed 23 games), Dion Waiters (21 games), and good old Anderson Varejao (missed 57 games). But it's not much of a success, akin to the Charlotte Bobcats making the playoffs in the 2009-10 season, and it's likely unsustainable, again, ala the Bobcats-who-will-become-Hornets-anew.

You could just have two marshmallows instead.

Yes Nerlens Noel is out with an ACL-tear. And yes, basketball fans, especially Chicago Bulls fans, automatically cringe when they see that combination of three letters. Mr. Rose however, seems to be an anomaly. Improvements in medical technology have athletes returning to the field faster now, and looking more like themselves pre-injury. Plus, given Noel's spring chicken age of 19-years, there's no reason not to think he won't make a full recovery by December or January.

And the truth is, the Cavs need a player like Noel, and the 4.4 blocks per game he averaged in 24 NCAA games prior to his injury, given their anemic defense. 6'9" Tristan Thompson can't defend the rim, and Sideshow Bob has played 81 games, TOTAL, over the last three seasons. Not only could Noel be the best player in the draft (albeit in the long-term), you'd fill a need with a 7'0" pogo-stick shot-rejecter that actually has an offensive game that can be developed.

Then you can start preparing for 2014.

While we don't want to use the word "tanking" around here, if the Cavs hold off on adding in a ton of vets for a futile playoff run, and if they stink up the joint while Noel takes a proper amount of time to recover (note, I didn't say 'takes his sweet time to recover') then that could put Cleveland in the position of having another lottery choice. And given the fact that next year's batch of rookies is projected to be a bumper crop, why wouldn't you pump the brakes for another season and assemble for yourself a homegrown starting five of players all selected in the top part of the draft?

It'd be like having five marshmallows!

And yet there's Cavs GM Chris Grant telling ESPN's Brian Windhorst that "It's important for us [the Cavaliers] to win and move forward and grow collectively as a group.

"We feel that pressure."

Or in this case, the pressure to settle for just one marshmallow.  - GMA News