Brown’s downfall from heralded “can’t miss” prep prospect to NBA journeyman after seven nondescript seasons has been well chronicled. Look past the cautionary tale, however, and you’ll find a 26-year-old who has averaged 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game over his career. At the price the Pistons got him from a free-agent market with few established commodities, the deal makes sense for Detroit, a team with enough roster stability to take a chance.

The contract itself, as reported by ESPN.com, involves little risk for the Pistons. It’s a two-year deal at $4 million per year, but with a player option after the 2008-09 season. Perhaps the Pistons are hopeful that Brown, who generated virtually no free-agent buzz this summer, will realize he needs to produce to get another big payday, and will take advantage of this opportunity in 2008-09, then opt out of the second year. He failed to capitalize at the end of last season when he averaged just 3.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15 games for Memphis after his trade from the Lakers. That’s in part why Brown will be making less than half of the $9.1 million he was paid in 2007-08, the last year of his previous three-year deal.

The Pistons don’t have a sterling track record for underachieving big men taken at the top of the draft (rhymes with “Marco”), but they may believe Brown could thrive in a winning locker room atmosphere patrolled by proven vets, and under a coach like Curry, who has earned rave reviews from Detroit’s young bench players. Brown, who bypassed college and was drafted first overall by Michael Jordan when he ran the Wizards' front office, is only one year older than three-year vet Jason Maxiell.

Brown also has raised his game in the playoffs when given the opportunity. He started a combined 12 games for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2006 and 2007 postseasons, averaging 11.3 points and 6.1 rebounds. The Pistons have reached six straight conference finals, and anything Brown can contribute to making a seventh trip would be a bonus. The most Brown has contributed to a conference championship is his expiring contract, which the salary-slashing Grizzlies acquired in exchange for former All-Star Pau Gasol, who helped the Lakers win the West.

If that’s a distinction Brown would like to change in 2008-09, he might be in the right place. Nowhere else have other teams’ first-round picks done more to change how they’re perceived around the league than in Detroit.

Continue to check Pistons.com for the official announcement of Brown’s signing.