LAS VEGAS – Arron Afflalo was on the radar screen of NBA scouts by the time he arrived at UCLA as one of Ben Howland’s first plum recruits to the place John Wooden transformed into college basketball’s historic elite. So as Pistons scouting director, George David was well aware of him even before he averaged 11 points a game and shot nearly 40 percent from behind the 3-point arc as a Bruins freshman.

But he went on high alert sometime that summer when he took a phone call from Chauncey Billups, himself not far removed from a second straight trip to the NBA Finals with one Finals MVP trophy already on his mantle.

“Chauncey Billups has been telling me for two years how big-time a competitor this kid is,” David said after the Pistons made Afflalo the 27th pick in the draft. “One of the things Chauncey said when he would call in the summer is that this kid doesn’t back down.”

In those pickup games in the men’s gym on UCLA’s campus, which for years have drawn top-drawer NBA and college talent, Billups and teammate Tayshaun Prince – like Afflalo, Prince grew up in nearby Compton – kept noticing that Afflalo was the only collegian who kept taking it to players like Baron Davis and Billups.

“They said he was tough,” David said, “and when you get that kind of feedback from a guy like Chauncey, that helps you make a decision.”

There were many talented players still on the board in a deep draft when the Pistons plucked Afflalo for their backcourt, where they think he’ll form a productive and enduring tandem with top pick Rodney Stuckey, his roommate here in Las Vegas for the NBA’s Summer League. They could have gone for Brazilian 7-footer Tiago Splitter, LSU’s Glen “Big Baby” Davis or USC combo guard Gabe Pruitt, who played on Afflalo’s high school team before transferring to play with another Piston, Amir Johnson.

But something kept pulling them back to Afflalo, who seemed to fit the things the Pistons believed in most.

“I think it’s a perfect fit,” Afflalo’s agent, Sam Goldfeder, said of his coming to the Pistons. “Everything that Detroit has stood for in the past and will continue to stand for in the future, Arron is emblematic of all those things. He’s a great kid, he’s tough as nails, he’s a winner, he’s a team player, he’s a guy who’s never going to be complacent.

“Arron’s a special person. There are two things about him that’s different – his mental toughness and his pride. If one day, God willing, he would be a maxed-out player, he would be in the gym, in the dark, in the summer, by himself, working out because he always will get better. He has a love for the game.”

Afflalo’s jump shot has betrayed him in Las Vegas, going 9 for 26 through his first two games. But the Pistons think there’s nothing in his form to indicate he won’t become a very proficient perimeter shooter. And in at least one respect – his knack for moving without the ball and using screens – he’s the perfect backup to Rip Hamilton.

It’s in all the other things – defense, rebounding, court sense – where the Pistons see Afflalo as an ideal fit. In fact, they think he can guard all three perimeter positions. One day Pistons vice president John Hammond was talking to Afflalo and newly hired assistant coach Michael Curry, who made an unlikely career out of his ability, at 6-foot-5, to lock up the league’s premier small forwards.

“I told Arron that Michael guarded every three in the league and said if he could do it at that size, then Arron could, too,” Hammond said. “I told him, ‘We know you can guard twos and we know you can guard threes.’ And Arron said, ‘Hey, John, I can guard ones, too.’ ”

He showed that – along with the mentality that sold the front office on him – in the Summer League opener when he asked coach Terry Porter to let him guard Louis Williams, a two-year veteran, after Williams exploded for 10 quick points to open the fourth quarter. On the last possession of regulation, with Philadelphia in position to win, Afflalo forced the jet-quick Williams into a desperation heave that missed everything.

“I always said when I played that whatever position you can defend, you can play,” Curry said. “His skill level is good enough to play the one, two or three and he definitely can defend those three positions. He’s going to be a tremendous asset. Most of it is mentality and he has that. He comes out of a great program where he was the rock of that team.

“I’ve always thought last year, when he was thinking of coming out, that offensively he could get better but defensively I thought he was NBA ready. I feel the same way now. He’s gotten better offensively. Because of the way he works, he’ll get to where he needs to be. But defensively, he’s NBA ready right now.”

Chauncey Billups could have told the Pistons the same thing two years ago. In fact, he did.