Kwame Brown Making 4th NBA Stop

Make the Detroit Pistons another in a growing list of teams to take a chance on the first pick of the 2001 NBA Draft. On Monday, Pistons President Joe Dumars took a risk and signed the 6'11" forward/center to a two year contract worth $8 million.

The Pistons have been searching for some help on the front court and hope that Brown, 26, can fulfill his potential here after disappointing stints in Washington, Los Angeles, and Memphis. His agent, Mark Bartelstein, sees an opportunity for a fresh start.

"He is a tremendous talent, and we think this can be a kind of rebirth for his career," Bartelstein told the Detroit Free Press.

In seven seasons, Brown's averaged 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in 404 contests (186 starts). Last season, Brown posted averages of 4.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 38 games, starting 15 times. He's also appeared in 15 playoff games, averaging 9.9 points and 5.9 rebounds. He began the season with the Los Angeles Lakers before being traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in February for Pau Gasol.

The addition of Brown gives the Pistons some experience off the bench. Brown has played more games than young reserves Jason Maxiell (175) and Amir Johnson (73) combined. The deal puts the Pistons over the salary cap for the upcoming season so it appears likely no more big moves will be made.

Brown has only been on one team that's advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs (Washington in 2005), but he joins a Detroit Pistons team that has been to the Eastern Conference Finals six straight seasons, appearing in the NBA Finals twice, and winning a title in 2004. However, since losing game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals to the Spurs, the Pistons have not gone past the Eastern Conference Finals the last three years. The core of a team that won 59 games last season (2nd in the NBA) looks to be returning, and they hope first year head coach Michael Curry, the development of their young bench players, and the addition of Brown can rectify that.

Another Beginning...

After mentioning that we're in the dog days of Summer yesterday, today is the day that ninety percent of sports fans come out of hibernation. Training Camps across the country opened up today. You know what that means, football season is almost upon us. I have managed to avoid the forced chaos the machine (namely ESPN) has brought about for months. In fact, I have deliberately tried to keep away from thinking about football ever since the worldwide leader published their 32 team power rankings in May and proceeded to dedicate segments of Sportscenter to debating the selections. Yes, May. Before all the free agents are signed, before any trades are made, even before minicamps come around for players to skip.

Well today means I can no longer ignore the fever. With football season comes everything else: a bunch of chumps coming on television beating one topic to death (Brett Favre gave them their ammo this season but Chad Johnson would have sufficed beforehand), seven hundred different player rankings from so called fantasy experts with can't miss advice sure to win you your league (none of them particularly smarter than the rest), and another miserable Lions season that wastes 15 of my Sundays along with Thanksgiving. Oh, the latter is just me and a segment of masochistic folks who yearn to see some kind of direction (preferably positive) from this inept franchise.

Am I being too negative? Perhaps, but I'm also being realistic. After seven straight losing seasons and missing the playoffs every year since 1999, I think I'm allowed a certain amount of pessimism. They almost had me last year, I was so close to actually believing I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. A 6-2 start capped off by a smack down of the Denver Broncos had me entertaining visions of going to the postseason. The end result was a pitiful 1-7 finish and a 7-9 overall record, a four win improvement from the year before and their best mark since going 9-7 in 2000.

So with apparent progress made last season, what happened next? Well, after finishing 16th in the NFL in points last year (their best rank since 1999), the team proceeded to show Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz the door to let Jim Colletto call plays (something he has never done at the professional level). Now, Martz absolutely infuriated me for the complete lack of balance in his play calling and he seems to be living off his reputation from the Rams high flying years (1999-2001 most notably). That said, I guess you can't argue with the results. Especially compared to those of his predecessors.

The logic behind the change was to have someone who would actually call a few running plays and not expose Jon Kitna to so many hits behind a suspect offensive line. I can buy that. However, the Lions decided to let go of their leading rusher from last season, the oft injured Kevin Jones. Leaving the workload in the hands of notorious fumbler Tatum Bell (who didn't play at all after week 5), 3rd round pick Kevin Smith, and injury prone 3rd year back Brian Calhoun. The wild card here is Smith, a player who was drafted out of UCF presumably because he is familiar with the blocking scheme Colletto wants to implement. Until he proves himself on Sundays, however, there appears to be a serious lack of talent at runningback.

On the other side of the ball, the Lions defense was statistically the worst in the National Football League last season. While the rush defense was sub par, the pass defense was an albatross (31st in pass yards/game allowed). To that end, the Lions nabbed two new starters at corner via free agency (Brian Kelly) and trade (Leigh Bodden). They will be improvement if for no other reason than they can't be any worse than Fernando Bryant and Travis Fisher were.

The acquisition of Bodden cost them their most talented (and most frustrating) defensive lineman Shaun Rogers. Head coach Rod Marinelli is credited with developing several Pro-Bowl D-linemen as an assistant in Tampa, but has his work cut out for him with this group. They brought in Chuck Darby as a pulse to man the interior next to the debilitating contract known as Cory Redding. When the Lions were winning games, the front four provided enough pressure to mask the ineptitude of the secondary. The secondary is better, but now the front four is a huge question mark. It's always one step forward and two steps backwards with this franchise. Unless DeWayne White can recover from his injuries of a year ago, the defensive line has no legitimate pass rushers and the Lions will find a new way to get beat on that side of the ball. Dieing a slow painful death on the ground as opposed to having their brains blown out through the air.

The Lions are using a pretty awful slogan in their season ticket commercials "Do You Believe in Now?". Um, no. For a lot of the reasons I just stated. I could go on, but I won't for now. I've said enough. Though I will be doing some research/predictions fairly soon as we get into the preseason.

Alive and...Well?

This is the trying time of year for baseball fans commonly referred to as the "dog days of Summer". The season is well past the halfway point and the standings are beginning to have added meaning. As I write this, the Detroit Tigers clinched their first series win over the lowly Kansas City Royals and go for a sweep this afternoon. They sit at 51-49, 5.5 games behind the first place Chicago White Sox and 4 behind the surprising Minnesota Twins (the best bad baseball team I have ever seen).

Months before the season, I wrote a glowing review about the Tigers blockbuster trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. I noted a concern about Willis' spontaneously poor command the past two seasons, but also figured that he could at least be about league average and that would be enough with the lineup the Tigers boasted. Instead, he has been an absolute disaster (0-1, 10.32 ERA, 21 walks in 11 1/3 innings). Cabrera got off to a slow start, then got hurt, and his defense was so bad he got switched to first base. To be fair, Cabrera is starting to hit like the Tigers expected him to now that he's gotten used to the American League (.324 average, 6 homeruns, 20 RBI, 1.002 OPS in July).

To quote and make fun of myself at the conclusion of the December blog entry, "worst case scenario is the Tigers win 95 games and return to the playoffs. Even in a tough American League, I would put money on the Tigers winning 100 games and the World Series in 2008". Samsonite, I was way off. Worst case scenario from back then is looking like best case scenario right now. To win 95 games, the Tigers would have to go 44-18 the rest of the way. That's a tall order, especially considering how hot they had to get just to get over .500 (25-12 since a 26-37 start). Can they do it? Sure, nothing is impossible until it is. Will they? I don't know, but let's take a look at how the Tigers have done the last three seasons up to the 100 game mark and then afterwards.

2005-First 100: 50-50 (.500). Last 62: 21-41 (.339).
2006-First 100: 67-33 (.670). Last 62: 28-34 (.452).
2007-First 100: 60-40 (.600). Last 62: 28-34 (.452).
Total-First 100: 177-123 (.590). Last 62: 77-109 (.414).

As you can see, the Tigers need to reverse a troubling trend. In 2005, the Tigers really weren't a contender and struggled to get to .500 most of the season before injuries caught up to them. The last two seasons, however, the Tigers were all alone atop of the American League Central division at the 100 game mark. The last two seasons, the Tigers fizzled down the stretch and gave away the division lead. They settled for the Wild Card in 2006 after being in front by 10 games in early August and missed the postseason altogether a year ago (finishing a whopping 8 games behind Cleveland). There's no lead to protect this time around, the Tigers are in the position of chasing two teams in their division. There's still some time left to do it, but this team can ill afford to rest on their laurels like the last two years.

Fortunately for the Tigers, they have some positives to build on. They've got the best record in baseball since they fell to 26-37, Justin Verlander is pitching like the ace the team envisioned, the bullpen is getting healthy at the back end with the returns of Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya, and the offense is producing at the level everyone thought they would at the beginning of the season. If all those trends continue, you have to like their chances to be relevant down the stretch. That is really all you can ask for given how poorly they started. I'm not sure if the Tigers have enough assets to trade for some help at the deadline and I don't know if they should trade them if they did, but this team has a steep climb ahead regardless of how the roster looks after July 31st.

As I previously stated, we're in the dog days of Summer. If the dogs in Detroit still want to have their day, they'll have to show up for the second half. Their margin for error is gone, they need to finish up the Royals today and steamroll ahead in the division. The games they blew early don't matter now. To make the playoffs, it has to be full speed ahead from here.