The AP reported Wednesday that the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers engaged in an eight-player deal.The Pacers sent Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Sarunas Jasikevicius, and Josh Powell to the Warriors in exchange for Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod.
This could be a hit-or-miss trade for both teams. Each side gets players who are underachieving (i.e. everyone listed above). However, all of the players aside from Jasikevicius are in their 20s and could play at a higher level after changing coaches and systems. Murphy's been good before - he averaged a double-double for a season three times - but he and Dunleavy hardly seem worth their ridiculous contracts. Diogu's the best acquisition of this deal for the Pacers.
The Warriors were the runner ups in the Harrington sweepstakes during the off season, and Don Nelson wanted to get rid of Dunleavy and Murphy. This trade seems to be good for them, though I'm not sure why anyone would voluntarily take Stephen Jackson. If he can manage to get into trouble in Indianapolis, I'm interested to see how long it will be before he has an incident in Oakland. Harrington's easily the best player involved in this trade right now, but he really never seems to get significantly better from year to year. Furthermore, the new Pacers - Diogu especially - could turn things around and become good players again.
I am a Pacers fan, and I like this trade. I'm not too disappointed to see Harrington go because I didn't think it was that big of a move to bring him back in the first place. He's really not that good. I love that the deal sends Stephen Jackson to the other side of the country. Murphy and Dunleavy could work - Dunleavy seems to have nowhere to go but up and that's not a compliment - but the most notable player for the Pacers is Diogu. Remember what happened when they traded a former All-Star in Dale Davis to Portland for Jermaine O'neal when Jermaine was in a situation comparable to Diogu's in Golden State. O'neal started getting playing time and started making an impact.
