Biggest Losers in the 2012 NBA Draft

By - Kris Fletcher

As in any professional sports draft, the NBA's yearly event provides each team with the opportunity to improve on the previous season's product.

If only it were that easy.

While Thursday's gala had more than its fair share of surprises -- many of those instances seemed to be more like clear-cut examples of how not to do things when running an NBA franchise.

Photo by: Getty Images

Funny how often "surprise" and "disaster" coincide with one another, isn't it?

So with that, here are the three teams that seemed to be the most clueless once they were officially on the clock Thursday night.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

Oh Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland -- where to begin? With the 4th overall pick, the Cavs selected guard Dion Waiters out of Syracuse.

Waiters didn't workout for a single team, he never started a game in college, he was projected to go somewhere in the late teens to early 20s range, and oh yeah -- he can't shoot very well.

In essence what Cleveland got was a player who might develop into a solid bench-scorer. Granted, every team could use a guy like that, but when you're picking in the top 5, you should be looking for someone who can be a key (starting) component from the get-go.

Taking into consideration exactly where they were sitting on the board, there were way better options once their first pick rolled around.

The Cavs later selected center Tyler Zeller out of North Carolina with the 17th overall pick.

Needless to say, that was their second mistake of the first round.

Don't get me wrong, I think Zeller is a pretty decent player, but Cleveland gave up entirely too many picks to get him -- especially when you consider that they already have Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson down low.

In short, they just didn't get enough value with the pick based on what all they lost in order to get it.

2. Detroit Pistons

With the 9th overall pick, the Pistons selected center Andre Drummond out of UConn.

He's a high-character kid to say the least, but the bottom line is -- Joe Dumars needed more of a sure thing here.

Drummond's doesn't play with much intensity, he hasn't developed any low-post moves, and he has a mediocre basketball IQ at best.

I honestly hate having to question Detroit for this pick simply because of how much I think of Drummond's as a person, but taking him in the top-10 was still a major risk regardless.

3. Philadelphia 76ers

The 76ers selected forward Maurice Harkless out of St. John's with the 15th overall pick.

While he was a perfectly reasonable player to take in the mid-teens, the problem is, everyone on Philadelphia's current roster is almost the exact same player as Harkless -- a tweener swingman who can run the floor, guard multiple positions, and not shoot worth a damn.

So basically, unless the Sixers plan on trading Andre Iguodala and/or Thaddeus Young, selecting Harkless made absolutely no sense.

I suppose ultimately these teams could all prove me wrong somewhere down the line, but if that doesn't happen, many of the people involved with making these picks will probably be out of a job -- sooner rather than later.