We all knew this day was coming – Stephen Jackson has been shipped out of town.

The deal sends Jackson, whose constant complaints about his situation in Golden State made this trade inevitable, to Charlotte along with backup point guard Acie Law. Law was an up-and-comer whom the Warriors acquired in the Jamal Crawford trade this offseason, but he didn’t figure into the Warriors long term rotation.

In exchange, the W’s will pick up Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. Bell has had issues of his own this year – he has been playing with a partially torn ligament in his left wrist. That shouldn’t affect his shooting all that much, but it remains to be seen whether it will have an impact on the defensive side of the ball. Bell has been averaging 12 points her game early in the year, and I would expect him to take Jackson’s spot in the Warriors starting five.

Radmanovic is an interesting side piece in this trade. He hasn’t seen much action in Charlotte this year, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him spend a good deal of time on the bench in Golden State too… but he is 6’10, and even though he is generally not a post player, he could be counted on to help the Warriors out by guarding some of the 4’s and 5’s in this league. I worry that my next blog post will be titled “Radmanovic posterized by Kevin Garnett”, but for now I’ll just say I think I’ll take Radmanovic over Acie Law.

One final thought: My how quickly things have changed – remember the rotation from the “We Believe” squad?

Andris Biedrins C

Al Harrington PF

Stephen Jackson SF

Jason Richardson SG

Baron Davis PG

Key Reserves: Monta Ellis, Matt Barnes, Mickael Pietrus, Kelenna Azubuike.

Shockingly, that was only 2.5 years ago. From that group of nine, only Monta Ellis will be in uniform this week.