Davis agrees to two-year contract


By Joanne C. Gerstner / The Detroit News

Veteran center Dale Davis and the Pistons agreed in principle on a two-year contract Monday afternoon.

Davis' agent, Chubby Wells, said the Pistons were tired of waiting for forward Michael Finley to make up his mind and decided to move on.

"Dale's really excited about the Pistons and we're glad to get something done," Wells said. "It's a good fit for both sides."

Finley still hasn't made up his mind, debating between the Heat, Suns, and Pistons. The offer to Davis takes the Pistons out of the running for Finley, as they do not have any more open roster slots.

Davis, 36, is expected to fill the reserve role vacated by Elden Campbell. Davis is 6-11 and 252 pounds, a durable center who has played most of his 15-year career with the Indiana Pacers.

He's averaged 8.4 points and 8.3 rebounds over his 1,020 NBA career games. He last played for the Pacers, signed as a playoff pickup last March.

The Pistons tried to get Davis last season as their playoff insurance, but he signed with the Pacers instead.

The Pistons like to stockpile big men, a policy unofficially called "Shaq insurance". The Pistons know, through winning experiences in the 2004 NBA Finals and 2005 Eastern Confernece Finals, that they need multiple big men to defend Heat center Shaquille O'Neal in the playoffs.

Wells and Davis received the contract offer from the Pistons and were going to review it Monday evening.

Wells expected Davis to sign the contract on Tuesday

The radio announcers in Detroit thought that this might mean that the team wanted to get more frontcourt depth because they might re-visit the Rasheed & Ben for Garnett trade. They brought it up as a *possibility*, not something they thought was very likely

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 08-22-2005 11:49 PM]

Is that Sprees money they are spending?

Putting Spree and Sheed with no larry around might spell trouble.

We can combine that Duo and just call them:

"Shpreed"