Dion Waiters was the fourth player taken in the 2012 NBA draft. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

There is a lot of like about Dion Waiters. He brings a lot of toughness, having grown up in Philadelphia, and plays with an edge. Some NBA scouts believe Waiters will be a star at the pro level.

There is also a lot to dislike about Dion Waiters. He wasn’t a starter last season at Syracuse, doesn’t have great measurables, and didn’t play a lot of man-to-man defense in college because Jim Boeheim prefers the 2-3 zone.

You have to wonder what the Cleveland Cavaliers there thinking when they selected Waiters with the fourth overall pick in Thursday’s 2012 NBA draft. It was easily the most stunning move of the night given the recent history of Syracuse players in the Association.

Syracuse players in the Boeheim era are more likely to fizzle in the NBA than thrive. That is a proven fact. It happened to Dwayne “Pearl” Washington, it happened to Billy Owens, it happened to Lawrence Moten, it happened to Adrian Autry, and it happened to Gerry McNamara, it happened to Hakim Warrick, it happened to Jonny Flynn, and it happened to Wesley Johnson.

Flynn was the fifth overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves 2009 and it was THE WORST first-round pick that year. Flynn was a fish out of water and is now struggling to hook up with a team — any pro team. The Timberwolves obviously didn’t learn their lesson with Flynn because the follow year in 2010 they selected Wes Johnson, another first-round bust out of the Boeheim program.

There are a few exceptions. Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly and Sherman Douglas all had long, good NBA careers and Carmelo Anthony is one of the 15 best players in the league.

Waiters is hoping to have a long productive NBA career, and he seems to embrace the challenge. He is a good player and certainly deserves to go in the first round of the draft. But to be selected fourth overall is beyond surprising. Even Waiters was stunned he was picked that early.

“I’m very surprised. Top five. That’s every kid’s dream,” Waiters said. “I’m very thankful.”

Waiters said he had a tough time transitioning from high school to college because he never came off the bench until he got to Syracuse. He often clashed with Boeheim, but he says the “tough love” and made him into a better player.

The Cavs had a multitude of options with the No. 4 pick. They could have gone with Kansas’ Thomas Robinson, North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, Connecticut’s Jeremy Lamb, or even Duke’s Austin Rivers. Talent-wise, Rivers may be the second-best player in the draft behind Anthony Davis and the Cavs would have had a lethal Duke-and-Duke combo with Rivers and Kyrie Irving.

Instead, general manager Chris Grant decided to roll the dice on a player who will have the added burden of being the fourth player taken in the 2012 draft.

The latest installment of this very expensive pickup game is Saturday night’s exhibition game in Miami featuring a team led by LeBron James against a squad headed by Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.

Team LeBron has some serious star power on its roster. Scheduled to play with LeBron are Heat forward Chris Bosh, Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay, Houston Rockets guard Jonny Flynn, Philadelphia Sixers guard Lou Williams, guard Damon Jones (LeBron’s former teammate with the Cleveland Cavaliers), Cavs rookie forward Tristan Thompson, and Oklahoma City Thunder stars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. It’s interesting that LeBron picked up Durant on his squad because the last high-profile exhibition game had James going head-to-head with Durant, who has been on a tear this summer.

Team Wade features Heat guard Mario Chalmers, Dallas Mavericks forward and D-Wade’s good friend Caron Butler, Wade’s former Heat teammate and current Golden State Warriors forward Dorell Wright, New York Knicks stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, Washington Wizards guard John Wall, and Thunder guard James Harden.

In the end, Team Wade outlasted Team LeBron, 141-140, in overtime. It was a typical offseason exhibition game. Lots of dunks, lots of alley-oops, lots of breakaways, lots of one-on-one, and very little defense. Somewhere in New York, David Stern is chuckling.

Syracuse point guard Jonny Flynn was the sixth overall selection the NBA Draft.

Jonny Flynn’s one shining moment came and went in March during the Big East Conference tournament when he played 60-plus minutes in a five-overtime classic against Connecticut. Other than that one incredible night of Ironman basketball, Flynn’s resume is unspectacular. And, if you look closely at the Syracuse point guard’s overall dexterity, his shortcomings outweigh his great potential.

Syracuse alums don’t usually pan out in the NBA. There are a few exceptions, such as Dave Bing, Carmelo Anthony, Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman, but more often than not Syracuse players don’t last long in the pros, and the majority of them end up as footnotes in the NBA history books. All signs point to the same fate for Flynn, who is too short (he’s listed at 6-0 but could be about 5-10), he doesn’t have a consistent jump shot, his play-making is questionable and is a very, very average defender.

It’s not to say that Flynn will be a complete failure in the Association; he could be a decent pro player. However, decent does not mean being the sixth-best prospect in the NBA Draft and the Minnesota Timberwolves should taper their excitement with their selection. Here are five names – all former guards at Syracuse under Jim Boeheim – to ponder:

1) Dwayne “Pearl” Washington (1984-86) – If there ever was a product of TV hype, it was Pearl Washington. He built up such a reputation that teams didn’t bother looking at his weaknesses, which he had plenty of. The New Jersey Nets took him with the 13th overall selection in 1986 and it took the Nets just two years before finally figuring out that Pearl Washington was not that much better than Denzel Washington on the basketball court. By age 25, he was already out of the league.

2) Lawrence Moten (1992-95) – A prolific scorer in college, but could barely get his hands on the ball at the NBA level. Moten averaged 19.3 points per game during his four-year career with the Orange. In his three years in the NBA, LoMo was NoMo, averaging just 6.3 points and played in only 119 games. He spent his first two years in the league in Vancouver and ended his career as a Washington Wizard.

3) Gerry McNamara (2003-06) – Sharp-shooting Gerry Mac was a member of Boeheim’s national championship team in 2003. Despite four successful years in college, McNamara went undrafted in 2006. He has gone back and forth from Europe to the Developmental League, but has never made an NBA roster. The closest he ever got was getting a training camp invite from the Utah Jazz. Defense was McNamara’s biggest problem. He was protected by the zone defense in college, but was exposed at the pro level.

4) Adrian Autry (1991-94) – Played most of his college career with Moten and was an All-Big East performer. Autry was a big guard (6-4), but his lack of quickness and his inability to consistently hit a jump shot basically killed his pro future. Autry went undrafted in the NBA and spent all of his pro career in Europe, playing in Turkey, Germany, Italy, France and Poland.

5) Preston Shumpert (1999-2002) – During his junior and senior seasons at Syracuse, Shumpert averaged 19 and 20 points per game, respectively. He was a pure shooter and made almost 38% of his 3-pointers. But like many Orangemen who have played under Boeheim’s famed zone defense, Shumpert was not a good one-on-one defender. After going undrafted in the NBA, Shumpert played six seasons in Italy and has spent the last two seasons in Turkey.