PRO BASKETBALL
Former Wizard Brown to Sign With Pistons
Kwame Brown and the Detroit Pistons agreed to terms on a deal potentially worth $8 million over two seasons, team president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told the Associated Press last night.
Brown, selected No. 1 overall by the Washington Wizards in 2001, will make $4 million next season. If Brown exercises an option for the 2009-10 season, he will play in Detroit for another $4 million. If Brown doesn't take the option, he becomes a free agent again next summer and the Pistons won't owe him anything.
Brown has averaged just 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds over a career that also included stops with the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies.
The 6-foot-11, 270-pound center had the best season of his NBA career with the Wizards in 2004, when he averaged 10.9 points and 7.4 rebounds.
Brown is coming off perhaps his biggest disappointment, scoring just 4.8 points a game -- his lowest average since his rookie year -- with the Lakers and Grizzlies. Brown was traded to Memphis in February as part of the Pau Gasol deal.
In other moves, the Los Angeles Clippers continued their offseason makeover, signing veteran swingman Ricky Davis to a multiyear contract. Terms were not announced. Davis, an unrestricted free agent who turns 29 in September, averaged 13.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists while playing in all 82 games for the Miami Heat last season. . . .
The Golden State Warriors re-signed center Andris Biedrins to a six-year contract worth more than $62 million. Biedrins averaged career highs with 10.5 points and 9.8 rebounds with the Warriors last season, his fourth with the club. . . .
The Denver Nuggets acquired forward Renaldo Balkman from the New York Knicks in exchange for guard Taurean Green, forward Bobby Jones and a second-round draft pick in 2010. The 6-foot-8 Balkman averaged 3.4 points and 3.3 rebounds in 65 games for the Knicks last season. . . .
The Minnesota Timberwolves and restricted free agent forward Ryan Gomes have agreed in principle on a five-year contract. Gomes was one of five players acquired by the Wolves last summer in the trade with the Boston Celtics for Kevin Garnett. Gomes played in all 82 games, 74 as a starter, and averaged a career-best 12.6 points and 5.8 rebounds. . . .
-- From News Services





