AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Since drafting three foreign-born players six years ago, the Pistons have stayed strictly within America’s shores for five straight draft crops. If it’s going to change this year, it likely will be one of their three second-round picks spent on a point guard.

No fewer than four international point guards could be under consideration with one of those second-round picks, including French teammates Rodrigue Beaubois and Nando de Colo, Australian Olympian Patrick Mills and Spanish product Sergio Llull.

They’re lumped in with a group of American-born players of various backgrounds, including one, Patrick Beverly, who spent two years at Arkansas before playing professionally in the Ukraine last winter.

Mills is the best known of the foreign prospects, partly because of his success with the Aussie Olympic team and partly for his exploits with St. Mary’s College during his two seasons playing American college basketball.

Similar to Beaubois, perhaps, in his quickness – both have been compared in style to French-born Tony Parker – Mills averaged 18.4 points and 3.9 assists last season for the Gaels and showed in the Olympics how difficult he is to guard.

Beaubois might be even more explosive, and the most athletic player in this group, but he’s also among the most raw, inexperienced and inconsistent. There have been some whispers that teams with late first-round picks will be intoxicated by Beaubois’ athleticism.

His teammate for Cholet of the French league, de Colo, stands out among this group for his size. At 6-foot-5, he could play either guard spot and his combination of size, savvy and vision could make him an especially efficient playmaker. There are questions about his lateral quickness and ability to defend.

Llull, 6-foot-3, played at the highest level in Europe with Real Madrid in his native Spain, averaging about eight points and three assists in 20 minutes a game. A natural point guard with good quickness, ballhandling and shooting skills, Llull would be an ideal candidate to draft and allow to mature in Europe for another season or two – and that might make him especially attractive to the Pistons.

Beverly was a late-rising high school recruit three years ago who exploded as a Chicago high school senior. His recruitment came down to Arkansas and Michigan, choosing Arkansas. But he abruptly left Fayetteville in the summer of 2008 amid rumors of academic impropriety and was impressive in the Ukraine, though at a lower level of competition than the other European point guards in the mix. He’s a fearless slasher and a natural-born scorer who might be caught without a position – at 6-foot-1, undersized as a shooting guard but without point-guard instincts.

A few players who would figure to draw consideration should they fall to 35 are Florida State’s Toney Douglas and LSU’s Marcus Thornton, both of whom put up big numbers last season.

Though both are more naturally shooting guards, their value as NBA prospects would increase if they can improve their ballhandling and decision-making enough to handle the point on occasion. Both shot better than .380 from the 3-point arc and averaged more than 21 points a game last season. But of the players on this list, with the possible exception of Beaubois, they’re the least likely to be available to the Pistons. Point guard Darren Collison of UCLA is another who falls into that category.

Also on the radar are players such as UConn’s A.J. Price, Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks, Baylor’s Curtis Jerrells and Marquette’s Jerel McNeal.