Warriors sign Kwame Brown for one-year, 7 million

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Its Kwametime.Afterfailing in their attempts to land free agent centers Tyson Chandler and DeAndreJordan, the Warriors will sign Kwame Brown, who last season played for theCharlotte Bobcats. According to a source, the Warriors will sign him to aone-year, 7 million contractYahoo!Sports first reported the deal.SigningBrown shouldnt come as a surprise after the so-called upper-tier free agentbig men all seemed spoken for.And despitethe eye-rolling that may accompany the reading of Browns name, the reality isthat of the remaining free agent centers, Brown probably makes the most senseand could make the most impact for the Warriors.But theWarriors had to pay him a nice chunk of money because he was drawing more thancasual interest from Boston and Miami, not to mention his old team,Charlotte.Brown wasthe No. 1 pick of the Washington Wizards in 2001, drafted right out of highschool. He has been a major disappointment, never living up to those expectations.So, no,Brown might not have the best reputation among NBA fans, but hes coming off asolid season and the Warriors could do worse than an Andris BiedrinsBrowntandem.While Brownwont give you the length and shot-blocking of Chandler or the youthfulathleticism of Jordan, he averaged 7.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in 26 minutesper game. He started 50 of 66 games for the Bobcats.No, thosearent world-beating numbers, but theyre in the same vicinity as Jordan, whomthe Warriors tried unsuccessfully to sign for almost 11 million per season.Jordan averaged 7.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in 25.6 minutes per game.RELATED: Clippers match Warriors offer to Jordan
Jordan isabsolutely a better shot-blocker than Brown (1.8 bpg. to 0.6 bpg.), but Brownis the more effective one-on-one defender in the low block. Jordan, 23, is fiveyears younger than Brown but Brown is entering his prime.More than aweek ago, the Warriors reached out to Joel Przybilla, another free-agentcenter, but if he plays this season (Przybilla had been thinking retirement),he is expected to sign elsewhere.Accordingto various sources, the Warriors didnt reach out to Gasol, a restricted freeagent, because they were convinced the Grizzlies would match the the offer. Andapparently, the Warriors were right.TheGrizzlies matched a four-year, 55 million offer sheet submitted by Houstonearlier this week. As for Nene, the Warriors had interest in him, too, but werereluctant to commit big money to him because they felt he was the worst fit ofthe four to play alongside David Lee.

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