NBA Free Agents 2011: Kwame Brown Signing Not a Huge Disaster for Warriors

Sometimes, you have to choose the lesser of two evils.

Or, on occasion, a few more than two.

Case in point, take a look at the Golden State Warriors and their search for a center in the last week or so. They started by making a big offer for Tyson Chandler (four years and $60 million according to Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com), and then tried to sign DeAndre Jordan away from the Los Angeles Clippers (see Yahoo! Sports). 

Sadly, the Warriors could land neither, forcing them to turn to Plan C:

Kwame Brown.

Yup, the former No. 1 overall pick and infamous bust is coming to the Bay Area. His deal, according to Yahoo! Sports, is for one year and $7 million.

For the record, Brown made less than $1 million in 2010-2011. It is therefore no surprise that a lot of people think the Warriors are overpaying for Brown.

To quote ESPN.com's John Hollinger (must have Insider access), "the Warriors basically signed a very expensive backup center under the mistaken impression that he would be a decent starter."

Um, yeah...Where exactly do they keep the panic button at Oracle Arena?

But you want to know the truly funny part about all this?

The Brown signing actually isn't all that bad.

As you can tell by their interest in Chandler and Jordan, the Warriors clearly wanted to bring in a defensive-minded center. Say what you will about Brown's inability to put numbers on the stat sheet, but the dude is halfway decent on defense. At the absolute very least, he's a better defensive option than Andris Biedrins.

Not that that's saying much, of course. Biedrins fouls too much, and he's virtually helpless when going up against centers with thicker bodies than him, and there are a lot of those.

Brown won't be as helpless in these situations, and he will be somewhat of a deterrent for those who would drive through the lane in his general direction.

So yes, Brown actually brings something to the Warriors that they didn't have before, hence the reason they went out and got him.

Did they overpay him? Yes they did, and it sucks that they're essentially getting him at the expense of Charlie Bell, Reggie Williams and Jeremy Lin.

But you have to look on the bright side. Though pricey, Brown's deal is only for one year. If he does end up being dead weight, it won't matter because he'll be gone before you know it.

Above all, you have to realize that the Brown deal is not going to kill the Warriors. If anything, it makes them slightly better.

Given the circumstances, that's good enough. Brown's not Jordan, and he's sure as hell not Chandler, but he's better than nothing.