Also, I love using italics. It just makes things look more important, doesn't it? Especially at the top or bottom of stories. I'm going to use italics more often. Italics italics italics.

Listening to Warriors fans talk, you sure wouldn't know that the team was tied for last place in the division last season. All this Baron Davis has gotten to their heads, we think.

It's inarguable that Chris Mullin absolutely fleeced New Orleans in getting The Baron at the trade deadline last season. I don't even want to discuss it – needless to say, if Geoff Petrie pulled off AARP member Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton (whose incredible name is sooo wasted on such a "bleh" player) for Baron Davis, a statue would've been immediately erected. When Mullin – Chris "$51-million-for-Adonal-fricking-Foyle" Mullin does it, it reeks of blackmail. Yes, Mullin definitely had something on Allan Bristow.

Nonetheless, Baron is a Warrior and fans are agog with hype disguised as hope. Even level heads are convinced that the Double-U's are a playoff possibility (convinced being an admittedly strong word there).

So why in the hell are GSWhoops fans so overwhelmed in faith that the ELEVEN-YEAR PLAYOFF DROUGHT will end come April? We went behind enemy lines to get that answer, and here to fill us in is the fabulous Dave Isaacs from The City, a Warriors blog on the Most Valuable Network.

Take it away, Dave:

Thanks, Dave. The discerning and color-blind Kings fan should definitely consult The City throughout the season, just to keep up on the competition. (And if you've seen the cat-vomit alternate uniforms, you can't claim not to be discerning. Or color-blind, for that matter.)

Personally, I'm convinced the Double-U's are destined to be in a dogfight with the Los Angeles White Sox for the Pacific Division cellar. Remember, purported run-and-gun team Golden State is one tweak of the back away from disgruntled, defensive-minded, 31-year-old Derek Fisher running the show. Flyers like Jason Richardson can't be excited about that.

Also, did someone slip Mullin a large dose of Nyquil? The guy was in a coma this offseason – he let a trade exception expire, he hasn't used his mid-level exception or veteran's exception yet. No free agents were signed, nor were any current Warriors extended.

Does Garry St. Jean have power of attorney over the guy right now (and if so, can we get him and Petrie together at Spataro for lunch immediately?) After a summer of very public blind flailing about (read: Adonal and the Fish, free agents spectulare), Mullin's disappearance is frightening. Someone find him and hook up the defibrillator.

This team is a really, really poor man's Sacramento Kings. Like really, really poor. Like MC Hammer poor.

TZ's Prediction: No higher than 4th in the division. Playoffs? Cue Jim Mora.