Kwame Brown

[td00]

I don't think its a big loss because Kwame has taken a big step backwards from where he should have been at this stage. He is going to get minutes, but they will be minutes behind their current frontline and Maxiell.
Perhaps Kwame's workout was not much better than Morris' and Morris will be able to contribute for 10-12 min/game?
But big men will always get a roster slot, as long as they provide 'some' contribution.

[td00]

I truly thought that coming off a $9M contract last year would warrant him at least a full MLE this year. Conley tried to tell me, yet I still thought someone in the NBA would offer him at least $5M.
Well perhaps $8M over 2 years is better than a one year agreement when they see that Kwame probably doesn't show up every night to produce.
He is in a safe situation where he isn't going to be expected to produce much, but is there just in case of an injury to Sheed or McDyess.

[killbuckner]

actually d21- at the time we were discussing this Kwame was FAR out of the Hawks price range. This was from before Childress signed overseas- at that point there was absolutely no chance that the Hawks would have signed a player for 4 million a year starting out because it would have put them into the luxury tax. And lets be honest- if the money is the same there is no way he would sign with the Hawks over the Pistons. I don't even think a 2 year full MLE deal would have done it actually.

[D21]

That's right Killbuckner.
I re-open this thread from a bookmark, without looking at the time of the discussion
Totally forgot that Childress was still in negotiation.

[CWell]

I don't think its a big loss because Kwame has taken a big step backwards from where he should have been at this stage. He is going to get minutes, but they will be minutes behind their current frontline and Maxiell.
Perhaps Kwame's workout was not much better than Morris' and Morris will be able to contribute for 10-12 min/game?
But big men will always get a roster slot, as long as they provide 'some' contribution.

perhaps Morris was just dirt cheap.Cheaper is better to these guys.

[killbuckner]

I would have preferred Chris Andersen rather than Morris at the minimum. But really this is just a zero risk move. Bring the guy in and see what he can do- why not? ITs not like they have a really cramped roster.

[jarrettjackfan]

You should be kind of happy that you didn't get him. While I have seen some post moves out of him, I haven't seen a lot.

[tsherkin]

I am staggered every time I hear someone moan about Kwame's hand size.

It's not the size of the hands that is the problem and this is a myth that is irritating, because people use it all the time. The only players with a problem with physical hand size are those who are 6 feet and under. These are literally the only people with the physical capacity to have hands small enough for that to be an issue.

Kwame's problem is a combination of grip strength and how he uses his body, his hands are fine. Yeah, he can't palm a basketball well, and it's worse under pressure, but it's not an issue of size. His hands are roughly proportional to his height, which is MORE than sufficient to palm a basketball (guys who are 5'6 and under can do it); the "problem" with his hands are that they are not strong enough to consistently palm a basketball (especially when wet with sweat) and that he gets the crap bumped out of him on the block because he doesn't use his body properly. This became much more of an issue when he started playing back-to-the-basket. When he was a face-up player, it wasn't so bad. There is a fairly marked increase in turnovers per-36 starting in his fourth season, which was the first year he was really asked to play backdown. Then there's a lull in his first season in LA and then another big jump the last two years. This roughly corresponds to his level of responsibility as a backdown player... though it doesn't tell the whole story because he would often bobble and recover instead of turning over, "only" losing the scoring opportunity from a quick move rather than coughing up the ball.

It's a big problem for Brown as a low block scorer but not so much as a high post guy operating baseline and from the elbow, on the high side/mid screen, etc.

Where he belongs, in other words. He's a 4, not a 5 and has been his entire basketball life. The attempt to transform him into a 5 was a mistake and a big one with lasting implications. He used to be a semi-competent mid-range and FT shooter but that atrophied with his face-up game.

[/soapbox]