We could always follow the movie canon?

Like, take my "space pod distress signal" suggestion but instead of Vegeta and Nappa it's Turles and the Cursher Corp that intercepts it. Then we could have ourselves a Tree of Might story arc. Maybe some time after that, Lord Slug lands and inexplicably knows about the Dragon Balls. As we fight him we uncover his identity as a Namekian, simultaneously discovering that about Piccolo and Kami as well. And if, during that fight, Piccolo were to die... well we'd lose our Dragon Balls but be able to guess the existence of Dragon Balls on Namek so we decide to go there.

...Wait, did I just outline an elaborate course correction?