FanHouse VladimirRadmanovic

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.

When Shannon Brown ended up with the Lakers as part of the deal that sent Vladimir Radmanovic out of town, no one expected much out of him. After all, the move was made for financial reasons, and nobody knew if Brown would ever even see the court on an extremely deep Lakers squad.

Brown did get some garbage time minutes against the Atlanta Hawks, and he made the most of them. He had an insane blocked shot (which the refs believed was a foul), but it had the Staples Center crowd and his teammates on the bench going absolutely crazy nonetheless. Here's his reaction to seeing the play for the first time, and after the jump, you can see the block for yourself in all of its HD goodness.

We expect some wacky trades now; watching the fastest team in the league trade for a 57-year-old Shaquille O'Neal tends to mess up your sense of perspective on these matters.

But even in this Brave Frightening New World, you can never be prepared for a headline like "Lakers acquire Adam Morrison." Nevertheless, the Lakers have acquired AmMo and Shannon Brown, sending Vladimir Radmanovic to Charlotte. And really, Morrison and Phil Jackson might be a perfect match.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

* "Announcing an NBA game is frigging hard. I mean, it's really, really hard. ... The whole thing was like running a marathon at sprint speed. This was happening, that was happening, people were getting injured, T'd up, Dick Bavetta was reffing, refs were missing calls. I was just trying to keep up. Man was it hard." -- SLAM.

With Jordan Farmar out for the next couple of months after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus, there have been discussions about whether the Lakers will look to make a move to bring in a backup point guard. The pickings are pretty slim out there at that position -- just ask the Suns. But if this rumor is to be believed, it would appear that the Lakers are trying to deal for a warm body nonetheless, and it's a familiar one: former Laker (and two-time NBA champion!) Tyronn Lue.

While Bell and Ridnour have health and injury issues, Tyronn Lue doesn't have either. But Lue's status appears to be up in the air as well. It is believed the Bucks have an offer on the table from the Los Angeles Lakers for Lue, with the Bucks receiving veteran big man Chris Mihm in return.

Most Laker fans remember Lue's time in Los Angeles fondly for some reason, but all I can remember is Allen Iverson stepping over him in disgust after hitting what was effectively the game winner in overtime of Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals. It's not like he'd be expected to play extended minutes though, and in fact, it's possible Lue would never see the court.

The Lakers are still a solid eight players deep (nine if you count Vladimir Radmanovic) even with Farmar sidelined, so this would only be an insurance move in case another guard were to go down with an injury. The Lakers are loaded with semi-serviceable bigs Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga, so dealing Mihm for a guard to sit on the bench seems like a logical move, and a harmless one at that.

Everyone had to have been surprised when Luke Walton joined the Lakers' starting lineup for Wednesday night's nationally televised affair against the shorthanded Suns. With all the forward depth L.A. boasts, Walton is hardly mentioned and rarely played.

Vladimir Radmanovic has started all year, Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza come off the bench to fill the forward slots, and Walton ... hangs at the outskirts of the huddle and watches the dancers. (At least that's what he did Tuesday in Sacramento.) Walton getting the coveted starting spot came out of nowhere.

Apparently, Radmanovic was shocked by the move, too. He tells Art Thompson III of the Orange County Register Phil Jackson didn't talk to him about the decision, or give any sort of explanation.

Congratulations!

You came to your senses at the last minute and accepted the $85 million. Dodger Stadium is going crazy.

You spend the offseason as the absolute toast of Los Angeles and become more popular than Dodger Dogs, Mischa Barton, and Vladimir Radmanovic combined.

But the love affair wears off after a slow start in Los Angeles, as your average is hovering around .250 through the middle of June. There's talk that the clubhouse is fractured, caused in part by you being disgruntled.

So, you have two choices: ride out the season, or demand a trade out of L.A. Hey, it worked last season!

Get yourself traded

... or ...

Ride it out in Los Angeles

(Not sure how you got here? Start Choose Your Own Adventure: Manny Being Choosey in Free Agency from the beginning.)

Now that the speculation has ended, and the truth is out about how Monta Ellis hurt himself, the question that arises is, should the team do anything about it? It's a bit of a tricky predicament. On the one hand, Monta's your team's franchise player now, so maybe you want to tread lightly and not do anything to start a rift between your $66M dollar man and the organization.

On the other hand, you can't pretend that your star player didn't blatantly ignore the conditions of his contract, and as a result, sustain an injury that will keep him out for a minimum of the first two months of the season. That aggression cannot stand, man! Or can it?

There's some thinking in the Bay Area that says the Warriors should do nothing, for fear of Ellis carrying a grudge that could end up ruining the franchise, Chris Webber-style. But non-action by the franchise sets a bad precedent, and sends the wrong message that they'll let players slide when they do something that they know damn well they shouldn't be doing.

I'm not saying that the Warriors should fine Ellis something crazy like 10% of his contract, as the Lakers eventually did when Vladimir Radmanovic decided to go on a little snowboarding trip. But they have to do something. A small "slap on the wrist" fine and a stern (lowercase "s") statement through the media would do the trick. Just enough to let Ellis and the team know that the organization won't tolerate these kinds of actions from their players, but not enough to damage their relationship with the new face of the franchise.