It's been 365 days, one failed first round draft round pick, a new/old coach, a franchise-changing trade, and an improbable playoff run since last year's NBA draft, and guess what? The Warriors needs coming into today's 2007 NBA draft haven't changed one bit from last year.

They still need a big body down low that can board and command the paint, and they need a defensive stopper.

Warrior Nation, can it get any better? Seriously. After Golden State's tenacious, gutty, and spirited come-from-behind 103-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night in the O-rena, the Warriors have taken a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. After 13 years of waiting, nobody in the NBA is more jacked up than the Warriors and their long-suffering fans.

The season has gone from just another shit sandwich to a gravy train with biscuit wheels in little more than a month. From nine games below .500 to .500. Not just a .500 record, but playoffs. Not just playoffs, but most favorable matchup. Not just favorable matchup, but a game one victory to take home court advantage in the series and set the basketball world abuzz.

A good NBA season is like a good acid trip: it's all about peaking at the right time. Just ask last year's champions, the Miami Heat, about that one (the NBA season, not the acid trip). Well lo and behold, the Warriors are playing the last month of this season like a seasoned DeadHead instead of a burned-out meth-breath. After stomping the playoff-bound Utah Jazz Monday night in the O-rena, 126-102, the Warriors' playoff chances are skyrocketing like so many fantastic colors, and their days as league doormat may truly be numbered.

-The Warriors get a big lead, lose a big lead, then regain a big lead as they beat the NY Knicks. Tim Kawakami thinks the Warriors need to tank the season by giving Patrick O’Bryant some playing time. ...

New year, same crap. Actually, it's still 2006, so maybe the Warriors are just clearing their pipes of the last dregs of bad karma before starting a new year and a new franchise era -- one that will be known to future Warriors fans as The Warriors Decade. Either way, Saturday night in Sacramento, fate and bad planning teamed up to dish the Warriors a cosmic double-tap, with the Kings throwing in an unhappy ending, for good measure.

Jason Richardson broke his hand, first round draft pick Patrick O'Bryant was optioned to the minors, and the Warriors took a 116-97 facial from the Kings.

Here we go Warriors fans. It's been 12 years since our hometown hoopsters last tasted the sweet nectar of postseason. Will this year be lucky number 13? It depends on your expectations.

This is basically the same team that went 34-48 last season. Baron and JRich are the stars, Murphy and Dunleavy are gonna get plenty of PT, and the bench is long on potential but short on experience. That's not encouraging.

The Contra Costa Times is reporting today that Warriors assistant coach Mario Elie will be not be back for the 2006-2007 season. Though Elie's status has not been confirmed by either Elie or the Warriors, the writing is all over the disappoint-smeared toilet stall wall that is the Warriors recent history of personnel management.

This is how it plays when you're payin' for your snakebit ways.

The Warriors caught a, uh, bad break Wednesday when they learned that first round draft choice Patrick O'Bryant will likely miss the start of training camp on October 3. O'Bryant has a broken sesmoid bone in his right foot, an injury he sustained last week during an off-season scrimmage in Vegas. He's out four to six weeks, but fortunately, no surgery.

Unlike the Toronto Raptors, the Warriors have kept their plans for draft day close to the vest, which means they either have something up their sleeves or they still haven't figured out what to do yet.