The Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers, two teams mired in mediocrity, shook up their rosters yesterday in an eightplayer trade. The deal — the second major exchange in the last month — sends forward Al Harrington, swingman Stephen Jackson, guard Sarunas Jasikevicius, and forward Josh Powell to the Warriors. In return, the Pacers get three forwards, Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, and Ike Diogu, and guard Keith McLeod.

“We have acquired players who will fit very well with our style of basketball,” the executive vice president of basketball operations for Golden State, Chris Mullin, said.

His counterpart, Indiana team president Larry Bird added in a statement, “We feel that the players we got will make a significant difference to the franchise.”

Perhaps, but it’s hard to look at the swap and see anything other than a win for Golden State. While Harrington, Jackson, and Jasikevicius all are useful players with reasonable contracts, the Dunleavy deal inherited by the Pacers is widely regarded as one of the worst contracts in the NBA; he’s owed $7.5 million this season and more than $38 million more between now and 2011. What’s worse, Dunleavy played himself out of the Golden State starting lineup, and until his 18-point, 13-rebound performance Monday night against the Clippers, he had nearly fallen out of the rotation altogether, managing only six points in the two previous games. But Murphy, and especially Diogu, are at least solid players who will fortify the Pacers’ interior game, and Murphy has the added advantage of good range from the outside. He will punish defenses that sag on Pacers center Jermaine O’Neal.

Golden State went from being long on power forwards to being somewhat short on them, so Harrington will step into that void immediately. His athleticism should work well in coach Don Nelson’s uptempo attack. Jackson will probably share time at small forward with Mikael Pietrus, who has bounced back to form after a desultory campaign last season. Jasikevicius, who can play either guard position, will probably back up both Baron Davis and Monta Ellis, and then take on a diminished role when Jason Richardson returns from his wrist injury after the All Star break. A key for Golden State in making the deal work will be making room for a recent DLeague callup, Kelenna Azubuike; the swingman is averaging 10.4 points in 21.9 minutes per game. Overall yesterday’s trade makes the Warriors smaller — a good fit for Nelson’s approach to the game — but if either Harrington or center Andris Biendris goes out with an injury, the Warriors will be in hot water.

For Indiana, the team rids itself of Jackson, a headache this season. In October, he was arrested for firing a gun during a fracas outside an Indianapolis strip club, and last month, he was briefly suspended following an altercation with Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle. But picking up Dunleavy, whose salary will be hard to shed, mutes the benefits. The most important gain for Indiana is that Murphy and Diogu both fortify a need inside; the Pacers are 18th in the league in Rebound Rate, which measures the percentage of rebounds a team grabs. The absence of Jackson will mean more playing time for Marquis Daniels, although the trade to the Warriors of Jasikevicius means the Pacers will be very thin behind starting point guard Jamaal Tinsley. Meanwhile, factor first-round draft pick Shawne Williams into the mix and Indiana is awfully long on bigs.

This has the appearance of a transitional deal for the Pacers. It seems likely they will make more moves before the trade deadline in mid-February, as the roster is badly imbalanced. O’Neal has talked about being traded in the past, and there’s a sense that this Indiana club simply won’t match the 62 wins they posted three seasons ago. Since then, they have played at or near .500 despite sporting one of the league’s higher payrolls. This deal could be the first of many in an effort to reconstruct the Indiana roster.

Golden State fans, meanwhile, have reason for optimism. Even if Jackson’s legal troubles limit his availability for the rest of the season, the Warriors roster is deep enough to withstand the absence, and more important, Mullin is systematically patching up some of his worst moves. In just the last six months, the team has rid itself of the millstone contracts he awarded to guard Derek Fisher and now Dunleavy. In addition, he’s jettisoned overmatched coach Mike Montgomery and brought in Nelson, who has made the team more competitive if not yet a playoff squad. For a team that last made the playoffs in 1994 and has spent many seasons this decade stuck just outside of the postseason party, this newfound momentum has to be encouraging.

mjohnson@nysun.com