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I'll give the Pistons credit, they have a solid history of turning disappointing draft picks into stars. Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups were sent to Detroit after underwhelming their previous employers. However, rehabilitating Kwame Brown's career is an entirely different challenge.
After stops in Washington, Los Angeles and Memphis, the 1st overall selection in the 2001 NBA Draft has agreed to a two-year, $8 million deal.
Can Michael Curry finally be the one to get valuable minutes from Brown? Detroit Bad Boys thinks Pistons fans should be happy:
I thought the Grizzlies were going to provide the 6-foot-11 enigma his best chance to succeed, or at the very least, put a noticeable dent in the box score. Brown averaged 3.5 points and 3.8 rebounds. If you can't be productive Memphis, where can you be?This is a move that should make Pistons fans happy. Yes, Brown was a bust when taken first overall, and, sure, he may have been overpaid the last three years. But $8 million over two years? For a legitimate center with underrated defensive skills?
Yeah, I’ll take that any day of the week, especially considering if Brown proves to be worth half a damn he’ll almost certainly opt-out after this season in search of a better deal. He made $9.1 million last year alone — one solid season with a team that actually knows how to play defense may be all he needs to convince some team out there to give him that kind of money once again.
Brown missed a lot of time last year with various leg ailments (bursitis, sprained knee and ankle, etc), but nothing Arnie Kander can’t cure before breakfast. It’ll be interesting to see if this move was made to set up another transaction (Rasheed Wallace just became a tiny bit more expendable) or whether the Pistons simply thought the price was right. Either way, I won’t be surprised to see Brown enter the starting lineup next year averaging 20-25 minutes a night, with Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell and (in the right matchups, at least) Amir Johnson filling in the rest of the time.
Kwame is just 26, now a seven year "veteran." Maybe it's that magic 27, as it is in baseball, that turns the light bulb on. If nothing else, at least it's some more muscle down low, which is why he'll continue to find a well paying job.
There's also the added bonus that he instantly becomes the most popular Kwame in town.
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