Is Chris Mullin content with Brandan Wright as his power forward going into the 2007-08 season, or is there still a chance Yi Jianlian could be a Golden State Warrior? Golden State loves the Chinese 7-footer, described by the bloggers at Golden State of Mind as the real life version of Yao Ming from the NBA Street video game. Warriors fans want Yi about as bad as he doesn’t want to play for the Bucks, who drafted him with the sixth pick despite his refusal to give them a pre-draft work out. Reports say he wants to play in a city with a significant Asian population and apparently Milwaukee doesn’t fit the bill (who knew?). There were rumors on draft day that the Warriors would trade for Yi after the Bucks took him, but instead they used Jason Richardson as bait to grab No. 8 pick Wright from the Bobcats. Still, they might not be done dealing.
The Bucks are struggling to even get Yi to talk to them, let alone sign him, and he could pressure them into a trade. If that happens, the Warriors have put themselves in a good position to offer Milwaukee another rookie power forward in Wright and some other asset to take the malcontent off their hands.
An Associated Press report Monday night said the Warriors may also be interested in including Wright in a deal for Kevin Garnett. Here’s an excerpt:
“Warriors top executive Chris Mullin has acknowledged having talks with Minnesota about Garnett but said he saw no need to talk to Wright about his status, saying “speculation is speculation.”
Brenden Wright’s stay in California may be a short one.
