This picture represented a lot of pain and suffering for the Indiana Pacers last season.  For those of you that don't know, I posted this picture after EVERY Pacers' loss.  I'm hoping to avoid this image as much as possible this season.  Why?  One reason is because I hate seeing my teams lose and the other reason is that Mike Dunleavy has said that he thinks he can improve his game another notch this season.

"If I can get better in my sixth year in the league, I can get better in my seventh." - Mike Dunleavy Jr.

I'm all for that kind of attitude.  He is clearly one of the leaders on offense and I'm hoping he steps up his game on defense this season.  With the duo of Dunleavy and Danny Granger, this team has two potential 20 point scorers.  They will lead the way on offense most nights, but we need that perimeter defense to step up.  It's nice to see that he wants to improve and he certainly has the capability to do so.

After being selected third in the 2002 NBA draft, a lot of pressure was placed on his shoulders.  He clearly wasn't ready for that amount of pressure and expectations and he folded early in his career.  He wasn't terrible, but he wasn't what everyone expected him to be with the third pick.

"I had a lot of pent-up aggression (last season) and frustration and I never really expected it to take that long, that many years, to figure things out. I think I can play in a lot of systems, but I think it helped completely getting away from that mess (in Golden State)."

I think that statement pretty much sums up his feelings toward his former employers!  I know that when the Pacers acquired Dunleavy, I was pretty excited to see what he would do on this team.  I liked his game and thought he could be a nice perimeter player for a team that had Danny Granger and Jermaine O'Neal on it.  But, after the trade, the Pacers never came together and nobody really played up to their capabilities.

Last season, I figured Dunleavy would be a lot better, and he was, but I didn't expect him to perform at the level that he did.  It's not like he was a superstar, but he set new career highs in field goal percentage, three point percentage, free throw percentage, assists, and points per game.  He recorded 10 games of 30 points or more, including three games of 36 points (career high) against the New York Knicks.

Now that he has made his statements, he has to back them up.  Here's to hoping that I won't be posting the loss picture as many times as last season!