With their eyes on a trip to the NBA Finals, the Pistons might open the season in four weeks with the 14 players now under contract.

The team will begin training camp today with a 20-player roster, which includes plenty of big men and point guards, giving the Pistons one of the deepest benches in the league.

Rookies, free agents and players with less than four years of experience will start workouts today at the practice gym with first-year coach Larry Brown. Other veterans will report Friday.

Tayshaun Prince, Mehmet Okur and rookie Darko Milicic are expected to practice today, but not center Zeljko Rebraca. Rebraca is recovering from a procedure performed at the University of Michigan to relieve an irregular heartbeat.

Brown has said that he may use a three-guard offense with Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups and newly acquired Bob Sura.

That would leave Chucky Atkins and Lindsey Hunter on the bench, but that doesn't mean the team will get rid of either guard before the season opener.

Orlando made inquiries about Atkins during the summer, and a potential trade to Dallas fell through.

Unless there's an offer before the season starts Oct. 29, or before the trading deadline in February, there's no rush to move Atkins.

You want to talk about history? You want to talk about the recent successes of the Pistons? About the back-to-back 50-victory seasons and Central Division titles? About getting to the Eastern Co.ference finals last season?

OK, Larry Brown doesn't mind talking history.

"I admire the heck out of what Rick Carlisle did here," said Brown, who replaced Carlisle as coach last spring. "But they lost 4-0 to New Jersey. Any way you look at it, they got swept out of the conference finals in the East and New Jersey got Alonzo Mourning this summer."

With that, you get an idea about the sense of purpose Brown will bring to the table today as he opens his 27th professional training camp (34th overall) and first with the Pistons.

Much has been made of the fact the Pistons represent the first time Brown has ever taken over a team with a winning record. But all Brown sees is a team that, though pretty good, has yet to reach its potential.

"I look at this team and two starters are gone (Cliff Robinson and Michael Curry). Jon Barry, a key sub off the bench, is gone. I see some young guys and I see some veterans who weren't here last year (Elden Campbell, Bob Sura)," Brown said. "The fact that they won before doesn't mean a thing. This team is not the same."

Mateen Cleaves, the former Detroit Pistons and Sacramento Kings point guard whose early NBA career has been plagued by foot trouble, is expected to join the team for the beginning of workouts tomorrow, but he doesn't have a guaranteed contract. Players with three or fewer years of NBA experience are expected to report, with veterans scheduled to begin two-a-day workouts Friday. . . .

As expected, the Pistons signed free-agent small forward Darvin Ham to a one-year contract worth $825,000 on Tuesday.

Ham, a 6-foot-7, 240-pounder originally from Saginaw, will go into camp Oct. 2 as the third small forward behind Tayshaun Prince and Corliss Williamson.

Ham, 30, has played 316 NBA games for five teams over the last six seasons. He played 75 games for the Hawks last season, averaging 2.4 points and 2.0 rebounds.

It looks like the first son of Saginaw will be coming home to play for the Pistons.

Journeyman small forward Darvin Ham, whose mother, Wilmer, is the mayor of Saginaw, worked out for the Pistons on Monday and is expected to be offered a one-year deal starting at $876,000. He is an athletic 6-foot-7, 240-pounder.

"There are three or four teams who have shown interest in Darvin, but he is sort of their Plan B," said Steve Kaufman, Ham's agent. "We aren't going to wait around. Detroit would be the best team for him; I don't think that's an overstatement. He wants to play in the Eastern Co.ference, it's a winning team and it's home. It's tailor-made."

Ham, who turned 30 in July, has played for five teams in six seasons, including three years with Milwaukee. He averaged 2.5 points in 75 games with Atlanta last season.

If Chris Webber had a hand in bringing booster Ed Martin into the University of Michigan athletics fray, then Webber should pay.

If school officials were completely ignorant of the fact that Martin was giving players money, including Webber, then Webber should pay.

But school officials are off base in their request that Webber fork over $600,000 to make up for lost NCAA Tournament revenue and legal expenses.

Michigan acts as if it is an innocent victim. It is not. The current players and coaches are innocent victims. The people who let Martin into the program are not innocent.

Here's a question to ponder as we wait another 11 days for the Pistons to open training camp: Whose team is it? Who is going to grab the reins of leadership?

Michael Curry and Cliff Robinson, the two guys credited with fostering and maintaining a mostly harmonious room the last two seasons, are gone. Who steps into the void?

The team's richest player and leading scorer, Richard Hamilton, is just 25 years old. The oldest and most experienced player, Elden Campbell, is new to the team. Lindsey Hunter? No. He can flash his championship ring, but he has been away too long and isn't expected to play a large enough role to command a leadership position.

Tayshaun Prince and Mehmet Okur will be key players on the court, but both are still too young to be leaders off it.

Corliss Williamson? He is a consummate professional, a well-respected and steadying locker-room presence who leads by example on the court. But it isn't really his nature to be an out-front, hands-on leader. Same for Ben Wallace. Without question, Wallace is the team's rock. It is his work ethic, his physical and mental strength and his selfless and relentless pursuit of success that have defined this team the last two years.

No, it seems to me there is only one guy on this roster who completely fits the job description -- Chauncey Billups.

Ready or not, like or not, it's time for Billups, the offensive leader and go-to guy a year ago, to assume total control of this team. Wait. I hear you. You say, well, with a coach as respected as Larry Brown, a guy who is in the Hall of Fame, a guy who has dealt with every kind of dysfunction imaginable in the game of basketball, how important is locker-room leadership?

Chris Webber's sentencing on a contempt charge was delayed for two years while the star basketball player participates in a summer reading program with Detroit schoolchildren, a federal judge said Tuesday. If Webber fulfills that obligation, he likely won't face further punishment.

"I'm not ready to make a final determination whether it's a misdemeanor or a felony," U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said Tuesday of Webber's contempt charge.

After the five-minute hearing, attended by Webber and a throng of reporters, assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, the lead prosecutor on the case, stormed out of the courtroom without commenting.

Edmunds said she was swayed, in part, by "scores of letters" she received from Webber's supporters.

"I believe that Mr. Webber understands the seriousness of his offense and that he's remorseful," Edmunds said.

For the next two summers, Webber will serve as a mentor in the Butzel Middle School summer program, spending 150 hours each in 2004 and 2005 teaching reading, math, science and living skills to the children.

The summer school will last four to six weeks, and is run by a number of agencies and organizations -- including the Spencer Haywood Foundation. Haywood, a former University of Detroit and NBA star, attended the hearing.

There is a 12-year-old boy in Serbia whose 6-foot-11 frame has European scouts beside themselves, itching to sign him to a professional contract. The hope is not that he will one day blossom into a dominant player overseas but that in six or seven years the N.B.A. will come calling, leading to a financial boon worth millions for whatever club has his rights.

Over the past few years, the selling of international players to teams in the National Basketball Association has become big business, and some agents and officials of N.B.A. teams believe it is becoming a big scandal, one in which international clubs are signing teenagers to long-term, relatively low-paying deals, then demanding buyouts worth significantly more than the original contract when they are drafted by an N.B.A. team.

With international players becoming increasingly prominent in the N.B.A. draft and with buyout amounts escalating, there is a growing sense that FIBA, the sport's international governing body, and the N.B.A. should revamp the system. Some American agents likened it to a form of indentured servitude because N.B.A. rules forbid teams to pay more than $350,000 for an overseas buyout, so the player ends up paying the bulk of the money.

"There has to be a committee formed by FIBA, the N.B.A. and all the governing bodies of basketball around the world because it's getting out of hand," said Tony Ronzone, the Detroit Pistons' director of international scouting. "Teams are now seeing the rewards they can get and they're looking for kids younger and younger, 12 and 13 years old, with the intention of signing them to contracts. It hasn't been done yet, but it's coming. It's going to come to a head sooner or later. In two years, something will have to be done."

Two recent situations illustrate Ronzone's point. Maciej Lampe, the Knicks' second-round draft pick from Poland, made about $50,000 last year on a contract with Real Madrid that was to run through 2008. But the buyout clause in the contract was for $2.2 million, though the Knicks were able to whittle it to $900,000.

And last week, Detroit completed a long, complicated negotiation with Hemofarm Vrsac for the rights to Darko Milicic, its first-round pick from Serbia and Montenegro. After telling Milicic's agent, Marc Cornstein, in February that it would take $15 million to buy him out of a nine-year contract that paid Milicic less than $100,000 last season, Hemofarm asked for $8 million to $10 million when approached by the Pistons after the draft.

On Friday, the Pistons signed Milicic to a contract after agreeing to a buyout that was worth $3 million, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

"It's been quite a roller coaster to get to this day," Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president for basketball operations, said at Friday's news conference.

Earlier, responding to a question sent via e-mail, Dumars said he believed the current system of transferring an international player's rights to the N.B.A. would "have to be addressed."

There is a 12-year-old boy in Serbia whose 6-foot-11 frame has European scouts beside themselves, itching to sign him to a professional contract. The hope is not that he will one day blossom into a dominant player overseas but that in six or seven years the N.B.A. will come calling, leading to a financial boon worth millions for whatever club has his rights.

Over the past few years, the selling of international players to teams in the National Basketball Association has become big business, and some agents and officials of N.B.A. teams believe it is becoming a big scandal, one in which international clubs are signing teenagers to long-term, relatively low-paying deals, then demanding buyouts worth significantly more than the original contract when they are drafted by an N.B.A. team.

With international players becoming increasingly prominent in the N.B.A. draft and with buyout amounts escalating, there is a growing sense that FIBA, the sport's international governing body, and the N.B.A. should revamp the system. Some American agents likened it to a form of indentured servitude because N.B.A. rules forbid teams to pay more than $350,000 for an overseas buyout, so the player ends up paying the bulk of the money.

"There has to be a committee formed by FIBA, the N.B.A. and all the governing bodies of basketball around the world because it's getting out of hand," said Tony Ronzone, the Detroit Pistons' director of international scouting. "Teams are now seeing the rewards they can get and they're looking for kids younger and younger, 12 and 13 years old, with the intention of signing them to contracts. It hasn't been done yet, but it's coming. It's going to come to a head sooner or later. In two years, something will have to be done."

Two recent situations illustrate Ronzone's point. Maciej Lampe, the Knicks' second-round draft pick from Poland, made about $50,000 last year on a contract with Real Madrid that was to run through 2008. But the buyout clause in the contract was for $2.2 million, though the Knicks were able to whittle it to $900,000.

And last week, Detroit completed a long, complicated negotiation with Hemofarm Vrsac for the rights to Darko Milicic, its first-round pick from Serbia and Montenegro. After telling Milicic's agent, Marc Cornstein, in February that it would take $15 million to buy him out of a nine-year contract that paid Milicic less than $100,000 last season, Hemofarm asked for $8 million to $10 million when approached by the Pistons after the draft.

On Friday, the Pistons signed Milicic to a contract after agreeing to a buyout that was worth $3 million, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

"It's been quite a roller coaster to get to this day," Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president for basketball operations, said at Friday's news conference.

Earlier, responding to a question sent via e-mail, Dumars said he believed the current system of transferring an international player's rights to the N.B.A. would "have to be addressed."