<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> 2. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS Remember last season's 14-4 finish? Remember this season's 12-6 start? Didn't think so. With the Warriors mired in a 15-31 slide, Baron Davis hobbled by ankle woes for the past month and all that playoff talk turning out to be one big tease, Golden State gave the Knicks a real run for No. 1 here. New York, after all, was merely considered a playoff maybe when the season began, even with Larry. The Warriors, by contrast, were widely pegged as a top-eight team in the West, despite 11 consecutive seasons out of the postseason. Make that 12. The Warriors indeed finished the '04-05 campaign with a flourish after trading for Davis, but the momentum fizzled one month into the new season. They also disappointed some fans on the trade front by flirting with a bold move for Ron Artest ? and then pulling themselves out of the running by refusing to part with rookie forward Ike Diogu. I actually agreed with Chris Mullin's reluctance there -- it's going to take more than 25 choir-boy games in Sacramento to convince me that Artest is no longer a risk -- but Warriors players acknowledge now that they expect a shake-up trade or two this summer. I'd also bank on a coaching change for starters, as discussed in this cyberspace recently, because the Warriors clearly aren't responding to the laid-back approach of Mike Montgomery. If they ever did.</div> Source
