12.2%

That's about how much of the season has been played. Ten games, in other words. Not a lot, but enough games that stories are beginning to develop, and the season is beginning to take shape.

2004 - 13.4 points/game, 2005 - 7.1 points/game
2004 - 5.5 rebounds/game, 2005 - 4.2 rebounds/game
2004 - 2.6 assists/game, 2005 - 2.1 assists/game
2004 - .451 field goal % (.388 on threes), 2005 - .276 field goal % (.235 on threes)

Folks, that's the shape Mike Dunleavy's season is taking, and I don't like it. Every single statistic of his is down from last year except blocks. Every. Single. One. If a stat or two is down through 10 games, I don't bat much of an eyelash. But all of them? After 1/8th of the season? For eight million plus per year?

If the Warriors want to make the playoffs, this player must get better. Right now, this is by far the weakest link in the starting five. While I have seen some defensive improvement, it gets engulfed in the offensive problems he's going through.

The Official Mike Dunleavy Fidget-O-Meter is getting a boost from 3.5 to 5.0. No, it isn't panic time yet, but another 10 game stretch like this one and I'm going to start to wonder if he should even start. Mickael Pietrus is playing seven minutes less per game, but plays better defense, is averaging four more points a game than Dunleavy, and shooting a much better percentage.

While I personally think Pietrus at this point is still a bench player, there isn't any doubt that he's playing much better than Dunleavy through 10 games. If this trend continues, the Warriors will have to ask themselves if they're hurting the team by starting Dunleavy, 44 million dollar contract or not.

Hello

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, but I neglected to tell you all that I had to take a trip to Reno for my new job, and thus wouldn't be posting for several days.

The trip went okay, although Reno is quite boring to me. I'm not one for shows, and there isn't any snow yet, so I fail to see why anyone would go there willingly -- yes, there's gambling in Reno, but there's gambling all throughout California before you ever have to cross the state line into Nevada.

Ah, well. Nevermind.

I did see the game last night. The only comment I'll leave is something that's probably becoming a familiar song by now; I see just enough bad things out of the Warriors on most nights (even during wins) that it's difficult to get behind these guys at the moment. The only difference between teams of the past several years and this one so far is that this year's team manages to win some of the games where they could lose, whereas previously they would find a way to lose almost all of the close ones. That isn't a better team, it's just the law of averages finally tipping the way of Golden State for a stretch.

But I'll not go into detail at the moment.

Tomorrow's my first day at work, in the sense of my first day at the location I'll be working at for the next month and a half. I'm going to BART into the City for the first time in a long time, and I'm even going to use public transit to get to BART, which is a big-time change for me. Wish me luck in my elbow-exchanges with the commuters.