Warriors Trade Stephen Jackson to Bobcats for Bell, Radmanovic

The Golden State Warriors no longer have a Stephen Jackson problem. He's Larry Brown's issue now.

The Warriors and Bobcats reached agreement Monday morning on a trade that will send Jackson and Acie Law to Charlotte for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. Jackson had made it clear late in the summer that he "was looking to leave" the Warriors and hadn't relented on that theme through the early regular season.

The Bobcats weren't on Jackson's original "wish list" of teams, however, his agent, Mark Stevens had said about a week ago that his client would be willing to play for any team if it meant getting out of Golden State.

The Warriors and Bobcats had talked about numerous scenarios over the past few weeks. The Warriors had wanted Boris Diaw as part of the deal, but Charlotte didn't want to give up the versatile forward. The Bobcats had wanted to include center Nazr Mohammed, but Golden State had little interest in him.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had been the favorites in acquiring Jackson, but that apparently changed in recent weeks. It was widely reported the Warriors wanted to acquire Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and his expiring contract, for Jackson but the Cavaliers were unwilling to do that.

The Warriors had been very interested in acquiring second-year power forward J.J. Hickson from the Cavaliers, but in recent games Hickson has emerged, making Cleveland less likely to part with him.

It remains to be seen if Charlotte will keep Jackson or look to move him. The Bobcats now find themselves with three versatile swingmen -- Gerald Wallace, Boris Diaw and Jackson.

Pe

rhaps the best part of the trade from the Warriors' perspective is that it saves them approximately $20 million.

Bell is on the final year of his contract, and Radmanovic's contract runs through 2010-11 (assuming he doesn't exercise his early termination).

Jackson, on the other hand, has three-plus years remaining on his deal, and is owed upwards of $28 million after this season ends. Jackson signed a contract extension with the Warriors less than a year ago, and it runs through 2013.

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