AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Teams that get to the conference finals five straight years, as the Pistons have, don’t normally expect to get much immediate help from the draft. But two factors argue that this year might be the exception. Which explains why since the season ended too soon for their liking, the Pistons’ practice facility has been a blur of activity.

The first half of the equation is that the Pistons have two No. 1 picks this year, the first falling at No. 15. That’s just outside the lottery, a pick Orlando owed them from the Darko Milicic trade of 2006. The other pick is No. 27, which brings us to the second half of the equation: It’s entirely possible that the player picked 27th in this draft would have been picked 15th last year and that last year’s 15th pick – North Carolina State’s Cedric Simmons, for the record – would go 27th this time around.

That’s how good – how star-studded at the top and how deep through the middle of the first round and beyond – this year’s draft is. Because of the star power of the college freshman class and the stipulation in the most recent collective bargaining agreement that steered that class to college, the 2007 draft is one NBA personnel executives and scouts have been anticipating for two years.

It’s been widely acknowledged for months that the first two picks in the draft will be Ohio State center Greg Oden and Texas forward Kevin Durant – most likely in that order, although concerns over the wrist injury that kept Oden sidelined for a chunk of his college season leave the door ajar for Portland to consider Durant.

Both players will wind up in the NBA’s Northwest Division as a result of draft lottery upsets that saw Portland and Seattle – along with Atlanta, which landed the No. 3 pick – leap over the three teams with the best odds at securing the top pick. They were Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee, which will pick 4-5-6.

It’s possible that in addition to Oden and Durant, two more college freshmen will be gone in the top six picks – Oden’s Ohio State teammate, point guard Mike Conley, and North Carolina power forward Brandan Wright.

Three juniors who won back-to-back NCAA championships at Florida – Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah – are expected to go in the top 10 picks. Two Georgia Tech freshmen, point guard Javarris Crittenton and small forward Thaddeus Young, should be off the board within the first 20 picks and possibly within the first 15.

Southern Cal’s backcourt of Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt figures to be gobbled up in the first round.

The highest-rated foreign player is Chinese 7-footer Yi Jianlian, but overall it’s a down year for the international market. Among the others who could go in the first round: Brazilian big man Tiago Splitter, shooting guards Rudy Fernandez of Spain and Marco Belinelli of Italy, Finnish teen point guard Petteri Koponen and Ukrainian power forward Kyrylo Fesenko. Other than Jianlian – who could go as high as the top five – no international player figures to go in the top 20 picks.

With the 15th pick, the Pistons will probably be selecting from among a group of perimeter players that includes shooting guards Nick Young and Rodney Stuckey (Eastern Washington), small forwards Al Thornton (Florida State) and Thaddeus Young and point guards Acie Law (Texas A&M) and Crittenton; or big men such as Josh McRoberts of Duke, Josh Smith of Colorado State, Splitter and Boston College’s Sean Williams, dismissed from his college team for repeated rules violations.

Three players who pulled out of the draft might have had an impact on the Pistons’ top pick. Georgetown 7-footer Roy Hibbert and athletic Kansas freshman power forward Darrell Arthur were likely to go before 15, while teen-age French wing Nicholas Batum would have been under consideration somewhere in that range.

Over the past 10 years, the record of players drafted at 15 is unspectacular – though not many were culled from a draft of this quality. The best of the bunch by a wide margin is three-year Boston power forward Al Jefferson, drafted out of high school in 2004. Matt Harpring has been a valuable role player, Steven Hunter is a serviceable big man and New Jersey’s Bostjan Nachbar emerged this season as a solid bench scoring threat.

At 27, the best from the past decade is Indiana point guard Jamaal Tinsley. Others of value include Spurs backup point guard Jacque Vaughn and another young Celtics big man, Kendrick Perkins.

Speculation on who might be available to the Pistons at 27 runs the gamut from point guards to project big men.

But the Pistons have proven very skilled at finding valuable players deep in the first round and beyond. They grabbed Tayshaun Prince with the 26th pick in 2002 and Jason Maxiell with the 23rd in 2005. Amir Johnson, who would be a certain lottery pick in this draft, was the 56th selection two years ago, when the Pistons found Alex Acker, a player they think is ready to join the rotation, with the 60th pick.