Thread: Kwame joins the Grizzlies
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**thaKEAF** · 02-04-2008, 07:12 PM

Quote:

After each Grizzlies practice in recent weeks, head coach Marc Iavaroni would follow a similar routine. He and Darko Milicic would go to the same hoop every day, and for upwards of 20 minutes Iavaroni would work with him one-on-one on an array of post moves.

That same scene took place following Monday’s practice, with one wrinkle: Iavaroni and Milicic were joined by newcomer Kwame Brown. Acquired Friday in the trade that sent Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers, Brown took part in his first practice with the Grizzlies Monday. Brown will be in uniform and ready to play in Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks in what will be the culmination of a whirlwind 96 hours.

“It was pretty good, different, a lot of running, we run a lot more than we did in L.A,” said Brown in regards to Monday’s practice. “I’m trying to learn the plays, get acclimated to the team and the city. I’m thinking a lot right now, but hopefully I can hustle and get some rebounds and get guys open.”

While Brown is leaving a playoff-bound team in the Lakers, he is looking forward to suiting up for the Grizzlies, who play a style more suited for his game than what he was used to in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t get to play much out in L.A., (and it was) a lot of back to the basket stuff. A lot of the stuff I see us doing out here is more of a flow game in the open court, and it allows me to use my quickness a little bit,” he said. “I have to get my offensive rhythm down. I mostly played defense in L.A., I’m going to do that here too, but hopefully I can get some nice moves in the paint also.”

Brown was an afterthought in the Lakers’ offense, averaging just 4.5 field goal attempts in 22.1 minutes per game in his 23 appearances. Of course, for him to get more touches in the paint, he’ll need to become a much more reliable free throw shooter. He comes to Memphis having made just 40.6% of his free throw attempts this season, after making just 44% last season. In fact, his career-high free throw percentage of 70.7% came in his rookie season, and has decreased in every year but one. That said though, Iavaroni outlined what he’s looking for offensively from Brown.

“We want him to get deep position, we want him to be able to finish under pressure with both hands, we want him to make sure he’s taking his time to make reads when he’s not deep in the post,” said Iavaroni. “He’s a very good passer and we want him to enable our shooters through that passing ability.”

Brown will be looking to take full advantage of the Grizzlies’ system as he’s in the final year of his contract, and the salary cap relief he can provide was the biggest reason the Grizzlies made the deal Friday to send Gasol to Los Angeles. While that could create somewhat of an awkward situation given that the perception could be that the Grizzlies traded for his contract rather than for him, Brown insists he doesn’t care why the Memphis acquired him, and is only looking at the positives.

“Now that I’m a Grizzly I just have to come out and play hard. We have a young team here, probably the youngest team in the NBA. It’s definitely an opportunity for me to get more minutes and come out here and play. So I think it could turn out to be a fortunate situation for me,” he said. “I’m on a new team and I look at the positives, that I get to play.”

Brown added that even in just one practice with the team so far, he’s already appreciative of the attention he’s received from Iavaroni.

“There’s definitely been a lot of positive feedback. I’ve been in a lot of situations, and a lot of them have been negative. It seems like here I can come out and play and he’s teaching the whole time, so hopefully I can learn from what he’s got to give and come out and play hard,” he said.

Along with Brown, there will be several other new faces on the Grizzlies’ bench Tuesday night. Javaris Crittenton and Aaron McKie were also acquired in the Gasol deal, while on Monday the team finalized the long-rumored trade that sent Stromile Swift to New Jersey in exchange for Jason Collins.

“Well we’re covering this like it’s a 35-game season. We told them they’re going to get the most satisfaction out of it by playing hard, smart and together, and then we’ll go ahead and have the most satisfying evaluation on what their feelings are about the future, wanting to be here, and our feelings on if this is an important person in our future as we go forward,” said Iavaroni. “And the only way to do that is work very hard, work on playing together well, and keeping it as simple as possible. And then let’s see if we can win games with a very simple philosophy.”

That philosophy gets its first test Tuesday night against Milwaukee.

http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/feature...es-080204.html

@ them writing up this big article for him, I would have rather they did one for Javaris.

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Thread: Kwame joins the Grizzlies
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