The addition of Kwame is great. The Pistons finally found a center who can replace Ben Wallace (who isn't that much better than Kwame). My question is who will the Pistons trade now they have too many center forwards sitting on the bench: Maxiel, Johnson, and Now Antonio.
how quickly some of you forget. YouTube - Kwame Brown Owns Amare Stoudemire this was just a little over a year ago
I watched the LA/SUNS game... he got boo'ed heavily, after that horrible stretch. His teammates kept going to him, hoping that he would do something positive in order to give him some confidence. Unfortunately, it got worst as he was trying too hard. You can hate him all you want... Bottom line, he is on our team now. Like I said, I watched all his games when he played in DC, and watched a lot of the Lakers game. IMO, he can bring to this team is good defense on bigs. He can pretty much bang with any big in the league one on one. Playing zone is another story. He still needs work on that. It will free up Sheed to play the 4, as well as Dyess. On offense, with confidence and injury free he can finish around the basket. People forget that he has been injured for the past two years. Like Magic Johnson said, the Lakers priority was to get him going early in order to keep him in the game. Unfortunately, that was not the case all the time in LA. Many times, if he missed a shot, the ball would never go back his way. IMO, he does not necessarily need shots, but needs to be involved in the offense to some extent. He is a good passer from the post and unselfish. He played so much better when he was involved on both ends. He also sets great screens, and RIP will love him for that. You just need to know what you can get out of him. For the price, he is worth it. He has something to prove, and he did say that money was not an issue and wanted to go somewhere where he was wanted. Memphis got him as an expiring contract. They had no intention of keeping him, as they already committed to Darko. They wanted to give minutes to their young guys, so it didn't make sense giving Kwame any minutes.
What's the opposite of excited? Whatever it is, that's how I feel about the dawning of the Kwame Brown era. If this stiff is on the floor while Tay slowly backs his man down, I might think they're re-casting the Thriller video rather than playing ball. F' me!
The screens I've noticed. As for the passing, the triangle offense is complicated, and the way a big needs to play in that is not conducive at all to being suitable to his (lack) of offensive game. I thought the biggest problem was that he can't pass or maybe it was that he cant catch . . . whichever, he's not going to really have to be a facilitator in the post or otherwise. The ball won't run through him at all. I think he'll get the BW treatment; basically, dunks, lobs, a jump shot here or there. I'm just really curious to see if he gels/gets along with the team esp Sheed b/c Sheed doesn't strike me as the type to hold back his opinions although he has gotten along with everybody even Darko . . . I'm not too worried about his lack of playing hard b/c i think for the most part he does/will. In terms of his training/work ethic which have been questionable, we'll see if Arnie Kander can work some magic.
YouTube - Kwame Brown tribute-Dont Forget About me The quality isn't so great on the video, but this one is kind of interesting. Obviously done by a Kwame Brown fan. You know that horrifying nine-minute one was a first game back from injury. I mean he looked like he couldn't even move. And Phil left him in there forever after he was failing. Looked like setting someone up to fail to me, or trying to practice tough love. Anyway, there's much better Kwame video on youtube and also they said he averaged 19/9 in the youtube clip where Stephen A. Smith is doing his usual verbally abusive schtik. It's going to be very interesting and probably the Pistons story of the year. Will Kwame be able to come back and lift his game? I really don't like the Darko-esque quality of the whole thing to tell you the truth. I'd rather the focus be on developing our bench more more more. And not on Kwame angst.
19/9 was referring to Gasol, but i'm eager to give this guy a chance. And ironically, LA could have REALLY used Kwame in the Finals, as Pau got eaten up. perhaps starting him, but only at 20 minutes a game at first. I'm still pissed that this was our only move, but i see value in it.
several, not yet discussed point of views: 1. Brown wanted to be pistons not vice versa. Begging him wasn't in Dumars' plans that is why I think Perry was honest to Langlois when he said that nothing happens in this week. 2. Brown, instead of choosing a team, where are plenty of minutes for him, asked voluntarily to join with team, where at his place is plenty of competition. At that is very encouraging sign , don't you think? He wants to compete! 3. Dumars did not lie when he said no full MLE to one player and short contracts only.KB's deal suits with those conditions .
Are you talking about European teams? I heard the Heat and the Lakers had some very mild interest in him. Here are some of the comments from Lakersnation about Kwame:
The Lakers fans crack me up... Bottom line, if they wanted to admit it or not, they needed Kwame in the finals without Bynum. Perkins was a man among boys in the paint. Pau weighs 200 lbs wet, and there is a reason why they call him Gasoft. Ronny was too small. Mbenga was useless and did not see the floor. We keep talking about as if Kwame is our savior. He is NOT. He is a just a small piece of the puzzle. If he can play tough D on the bigs, it's already a success for us. If he can score on put backs, and dunks... great! Our D just got better in my opinion... I also noticed that Kwame is very good at stepping in and taking charges. He still does have quick feet, even though he has gotten bigger. However, he is not a weak side shotblocker and seldom will leave his man to help. He is still a work in progress.
I think he will be fine with Sheed and the rest. He gets along well with his teammates. If he survived MJ and Kobe... hopefully, he is ready to handle criticism by now. I also think that at this point in his career, he has realized that to remain in the league he needs to rb and play D. Early on, he wanted to prove people wrong and justify why he was picked #1. If he can just concentrate on those two things, he will be fine.
Kwame is your typical Joe MLE summer signing in the mold of Flip Murray, Jarvis Hayes, etc. Lets not get all worked up about this pick. Most likely it is a seat warmer, best case he plays. Either way, the season does not hinge on him if he performs great, or if he fails. Once again, the "core" is the engine that drives this ship.
