Ballin101

Don't look now guys, but Mike D looks like he may actually turn into a very good player for the Warriors. Through the 6 preseason games he's putting up 14.0ppg and 5.5rpg in about 30mpg and shooting 49.3% from the field, which is honestly more than what I expected from him, even if it is only preseason. He tore up the summer league too, although one pretty much expects an NBA starter to do that. Maybe a lot of people underestimated the talent that this kid actually has. Now he looks to be one of the better lottery picks of 2002. He's obviously not the player that Yao and Amare are/will be, but he's IMO at the level of Caron Butler, Drew Gooden, and Nene in terms of what he will do for his team.

ssmokinjoe

He definitely muscled up big time in the off-season too. It should give him more strength and confidence when going inside to score or rebound.

Ben

This year may just be his year, with Jamison and others gone, he can be one of the main scoring options of the team, giving him more chances to perform and contribute.


Most improved player candidate?

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wilskeed

This young man is stepping UP!!

He has a complete game and most SF's will have trouble
against him. More of a complete player than Antawn in my
humble opinion. Go Warriors!!!

Knicksbiggestfan

Something that Dunleavy has to do in order to be elevated to star status is look to be the man instead of a cog in a system. He is a talented guy and man can he shoot and pass. Smart smart kid too really likes to involve his teammates. I hope he learns that in order for this team to win he is going to have to step up more often than not.


With NVE coming in though I don't see him stepping up at all but i nstead deferring.

FanOfAll8472

Gawd, he needs to be MUCH more aggressive out there in terms of shooting the ball. But he has been very impressive .

bballer27

ya hes gettin better

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eddieMoney

Dunleavy does a lot of nice things on the court. His vision is exceptional and has above-average ball-handling skills and 3-point shooting accuracy. When he's comfortable, he hits the open jumper, finds the open man, and gets his hands in passing lanes for steals. Look for his averages to look like this for the season: 14 ppg, 7 rpg, 5 apg, 2 spg, 35% 3-pt shooting.

I've got him on my fantasy team and has been a very good pick-up for me so far.

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Knicksbiggestfan

I think his 3 point shooting will be a bit better but I think the rpg apg and spg are right on the money... speaking of which....


EVERYBODY'S WORKING FOR THE WEEEKEND!~

mindnsoul

I'm hoping Mike Dunleavy will eventually develop into a player that's similar to Brent Barry of the Seattle Supersonics, although I don't think Dunleavy is as athletic. Barry can bomb from downtown, drive the lane & finish, and pass very well, and hopefully, Dunleavy's game will polish to be like Barry's except at the SF spot. Like Barry, Dunleavy will be more of a complimentary player than the actual star (more like a Pippen, not a Jordan).

stat line:
13.5 ppg, 7 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.5 bpg, 39% 3pt

Dunleavy needs another 2 or 3 years before he really gets the ball rolling.

Minstrel

Unlike Barry and the talent level Dunleavy Jr. seems to possess, Pippen was a dominant star.

So Dunleavy Jr. may well be another Barry. Unless he has Hall of Fame talent, he won't be "a Jordan" or "a Pippen."

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mindnsoul

Hmmm ... Maybe I should've explain myself better, but yes, Dunleavy will never be as good as Pippen or Jordan. I was commenting on how Jr will be a complementary player like Pippen and not the 'go to' guy like Jordan. Pippen was hardly a dominant player. A star, yes. An awesome all-around talent, yes. But a dominant player who can take over games, NO. Recall that Pippen sulked when the Zen Master called the clutch shots for Kukoc in the post-Jordan years. That was the difference between Jordan and Pippen. If the Warriors can pick up a player like Kobe, T-Mac, AI, KG, Duncan, or the such, then Dunleavy's game will be that much better.

Lurch

Dunleavy is now averging 17.8 PPG 7.4 RPG!!

Minstrel

Uh, you took a single instance and magically made it a plural. That's similar to if you screwed something up once, someone saying, "Remember how you always screw up?"

Through that season, when Jordan was off playing baseball, Pippen was dominant, leading the Bulls in every significant statistical category, leading the Bulls to within one bad referee call of the Eastern Conference Finals...essentially, he made them a championship contender with no superstar besides him. Pippen took many clutch shots for the Bulls and hit plenty of them. Like many people, you either never saw that season or you've chosen to ignore every bit of that season except for one play.

He made one bad decision, certainly. Of course, Magic Johnson once ignored his coach's orders to pass the ball into Abdul-Jabbar for a last-second shot in an elimination playoff game. Magic, without telling his coach, decided to take the shot himself, airballed it, and the Lakers were eliminated. Pat Riley after that called it, "disease a moi" or "disease of me." Ego.

So, I guess Magic is also not a superstar or dominant or a leader or whatever else, because he also had a single instance of blowing off the coach. And, unlike Pippen, instead of just not going in, he actually ended up sabotaging his team.

Still want to stick with this position of, "One mistake forever defines a career"? Pippen had only one season in his prime to show what he could do without Jordan and responded with the best season of his career and made the Bulls an excellent team with no other superstar. The rest of his career he was a "complimentary player," only because he played alongside the best player ever. Any other player in history would have been "complimentary" to an established Jordan (as Jordan was established when Pippen entered the league)...Magic, Bird, whoever.

And none of the above notes that he was widely considered dominant, even with Jordan, with his defense. Many players and coaches said Pippen was one of the few players in history who could take over a game with his defense. Pippen turned NBA Finals around with his defense, like when Jackson switched Pippen onto Magic Johnson in the 1991 Finals or when Pippen harried Stockton into being unable to run the Jazz offense well in the 1997 and 1998 Finals.

__________________
You'll never live like common people
You'll never do what common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
And dance and drink and screw
Because there's nothing else to do.

FanOfAll8472

very well said .