Frankly, this deal was more Moneyball than basketball.
The Golden State Warriors faced millions in NBA luxury tax, due to a bloated payroll. Jason Richardson was coming off a season of injury and another wing scorer, Monta Ellis, was emerging as the team's best young player. Ellis and center Andris Biedrins were going to demand big contracts in the coming years.
And there were the Charlotte Bobcats, with a burning need for a scorer and abundant salary-cap room to absorb Richardson's $11 million-plus salary last season.
So it all came together on draft night 13 months ago, with the Bobcats shipping cap room and the eighth pick -- former North Carolina forward Brandan Wright -- to the Warriors. And that helps explain why Wright, a talented but skinny 6-foot-9 forward, in essence spent his rookie season in limbo on the Warriors' bench.
When he played, he was pretty good, averaging nine points and five rebounds in those nine games of 15 minutes or more. But Warriors coach Don Nelson couldn't afford to give a rookie many minutes while chasing the playoffs in a Western Conference so good that 48 victories weren't enough to earn the eighth seed.
Now, things are changing and Wright -- 20 years old, raw-boned and still with braces on his teeth -- thinks his decision to leave the Tar Heels after a single season was sound.
"When you're projected to go that high, how can you turn down your NBA dream? You can definitely change a lot of things about your family's life,"
said Wright, who made about $2.3 million last season.
Even last March, when the Heels were making their Final Four run, and Wright was mostly sitting the bench with the Warriors, there were no second thoughts.
"They were already a great team; they would have been the perfect team, I guess,"
had he stayed, Wright said. "But I made the right decision, and they definitely did a great job. I expect them to win it next year."
By then, he figures to be in Golden State's rotation.
Richardson's departure for Charlotte proved to be the first of some big changes. Point guard Baron Davis opted out of his contract and signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, for one.
"Now we've got a really, really young team,"
Wright said before Tuesday night's summer-league game against the Bobcats. "It's different. They need people to step up."
