Drafting is such an inexact science. All you have to do is scan the list of NBA drafts from years past and shake your head … “What were they thinking?”

Take 1984. That’s the year some guy named Jordan was passed over by Portland for Sam Bowie. Oops! Hard to criticize Houston for latching on to Hakeem Olajuwon with the first pick. The Rockets have a pair of NBA championship banners to show for it. Granted, it took Hakeem nine years to get there. M.J. would need seven in Chicago, but things turned out OK after that.

The 1995 draft was another intriguing one, especially for the Pistons. The top four picks that year would eventually wear Detroit uniforms.

Golden State had the No. 1 pick and made the dubious choice of Joe Smith, who would spend the 2000-01 season with Detroit. The Clippers had the No. 2 pick and went with Antonio McDyess. Jerry Stackhouse, who spent five seasons as a Piston, went third to Philadelphia. The fourth pick was Rasheed Wallace, who spent one season in Washington before being traded to Portland.

That ’95 draft – the Pistons took Theo Ratliff No. 1 – also produced eventual Pistons Corliss Williamson and Bob Sura, who was involved in the package Joe Dumars put together to make Wallace a Piston at the trade deadline in 2004.

The Pistons have always been willing to draft in-state players. Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere was the team’s first pick in 1962after starring at the University of Detroit and old Detroit Austin High. Detroit Bill Buntin was picked out of Michigan in 1965 and Greg Kelser (Michigan State, Detroit Henry Ford) and Phil Hubbard (Michigan) were first-rounders in 1979, Kelser fresh from Michigan State’s national championship team were he co-starred with Magic Johnson.

Since 1987, when the Pistons took Michigan’s Antoine Joubert in the sixth round, the Pistons have drafted one local player – Mateen Cleaves with the No. 14 pick in 2000 after another MSU national championship.

Cleaves represented Joe Dumars’ first draft selection after being named Pistons president of basketball that June, and Dumars was himself part of an interesting draft class. The Hall of Famer was passed over by 16 teams after the New York Knicks took Patrick Ewing No. 1 after winning the league’s first draft lottery.

Jack McCloskey was very happy that the Clippers, Sonics, Hawks, Kings, Warriors, Mavericks, Cavaliers, Suns, Bulls, Wizards, Jazz (we’ll cut them some slack for taking Karl Malone), Spurs and Nuggets all took a pass on Joe D.

In fact, the Mavericks had three chances to draft Dumars and instead took Detlef Schrempf, Bill Wennington and Uwe Blab. Triple oops!