NBA Draft Lottery 2012: Teams That Won't Find Help They Need in Draft

Some teams are just perennial losers and no one player can turn them around—especially an unproven rookie. With the NBA's worst teams at the top of the draft, some teams will inevitably put too much stock in their draft hull to turn their team around. 

While there's no doubt that some rookies are able to come in right away and make an immediate impact, it is not realistic to expect a dramatic turnaround from a team because of one lottery pick. Building a contender takes time. Here are a few lottery teams that will likely find themselves in the same position next season.

Charlotte Bobcats

Let's just get started with the league's most awful team. The Bobcats were the epitome of horrible last season. They finished with just seven wins and set a new standard for bad teams with their putrid .106 winning percentage.

The Bobcats are in line to get the first overall selection in the lottery with a 25 percent chance to win. With that pick they will undoubtedly look to add Kentucky star Anthony Davis. He's a no-brainer—he's clearly the No. 1 selection in this draft.

Davis has an NBA body, superb athleticism and is a complete player. His ability to dominate without scoring attests to his NBA-readiness, and he will be one of the league's most impactful rookies wherever he lands.

Not even Davis can turn the Bobcats around. The Michael Jordan-owned team is simply too broken to be fixed by one stud rookie, and they will likely find themselves in the running for the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NBA draft. Davis will team up to form a good, young, defensive frontcourt, but this team lacks the veteran leadership and offensive acumen to win games on a consistent basis, and that's if they even win the lottery. Anyone other than Davis will be an absolute disaster for this team.

Sacramento Kings

It's no secret what the Kings need in the draft—the team already has plenty of scoring on the outside with Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thornton, and they seem to have found their point guard for the future in Isaiah Thomas. However, the Kings are still one quality big man to pair with DeMarcus Cousins away from being a dangerous team.

Jason Thompson has been serviceable at center, but this team needs a legitimate threat to give Cousins more room to operate.

Unfortunately for the Kings, this draft is short on post players that are really ready to step in and make an impact right away. The Kings will be happy to grab Uconn's Andre Drummond if he is available when they get on the clock, but Drummond is still very raw and will take time to develop.

With one glaring need and few prospects that can fill that need, the Kings will be disappointed with the early return in this year's draft.

Detroit Pistons

The Pistons are one of the more interesting teams in the lottery. They aren't quite in full-on rebuilding mode, but it feels like they should be. The team is stuck with veterans like Ben Gordon, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace and Jason Maxiell while trying to develop young players such as Jonas Jerebko and Austin Daye.

The Pistons have young players who will push for playing time in the backcourt, so their primary target in the lottery should be to find a suitable running mate for emerging center Greg Monroe. Replacing the production of Maxiell and Wallace should be easy to do, but the Pistons could find themselves in a bad spot to do so.

With a slim chance at landing Anthony Davis or Thomas Robinson—the best fits for the Pistons—they will likely need to settle on yet another player who will need to be brought along slowly like Baylor's Perry Jones or Kentucky's Terrence Jones.

Another draft with a project player likely means we'll be seeing the Pistons with more lottery balls in 2013.

Phoenix Suns

Sadly, the Steve Nash era is coming to an end in Phoenix—if it isn't already dead.

The veteran point guard has been the face of the Suns for years now, and with his imminent departure the Suns will need to retool a team that won't be the same without the unique skillset Nash brings to the table.

If the lottery goes chalk and we don't have any surprise trades, the Suns will pick 13th in the lottery. This means that they have little to no shot of landing any of the elite prospects in this draft and will have to settle for the inherent gamble that comes with picking in the middle of the draft.

Even if the Suns land a decent player that can play right away, they won't be much better next year. Replacing Nash is going to take a few years of successfully transitioning the culture and building a winner again. No player that will be available in the later portion of the lottery can replace what Nash makes this team, and without Nash they probably would have been in the top-five of this year's lottery.