Scouts will tell you that every draft is important, but this year's draft for the Pistons seems especially important. So much so that Dumars and Hammond have gone on the road and scouted players personally.
  "We do get a sense that it is extra important," David said. "We are going on the assumption that we could have two first-round picks. That right there makes it different."
  The Pistons, besides their own pick, could finally get the first-round pick of the Memphis Grizzlies, which has been owed to them since the 1997 Otis Thorpe trade. The Grizzlies can protect the pick if it is among the first five, but if they don't convey their pick this year, they can only protect it next year if it is No. 1 overall.
  "That pick is lingering, and we have to be prepared in case we get it," Hammond said. "But more than likely, we are kind of thinking that we won't get that pick until next year."