Editor's note: This week, ESPN.com selected its "team to watch" in each division, starting with the Orlando Magic in the Atlantic and continuing with the Indiana Pacers in the Central and Houston Rockets in the Midwest. The series concludes with the Pacific Division.

For previous readers of this column space, I know it is going to be a shocking revelation to learn that my team to watch in the Pacific Division this season is the (drum roll, please):

Golden State Warriors.

	Eric Musselman figures to lay down the law early with the Warriors.

I know, I know, I've said it in the past, and they have sorely disappointed. But my approach is the same as Damone's in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" -- "If you throw out the vibe to 10,000 women, at least one is bound to respond."

In my case, though, if I keep saying the same thing for 10 consecutive years, I am bound to be right in one of them. Besides, this year I really mean it. The Golden State Warriors are the team to watch.

Well, not watch in the sense that they are going to really win anything. But watch in the sense of, "It's about time you did something interesting."

Really, when you look at the Pacific Division, there is not a great deal else to watch. In Los Angeles, the Lakers are going to have to see how many regular-season games Shaq tries to miss with toe problems/flu-like symptons/carpal tunnel syndrome from too much PlayStation before they make another run to the Finals.

(As an aside, can you just picture the Big Fella in the hospital the other day, the nurse running around trying to find a gown for a 380-pound man so his rear end doesn't stick out the back, with Shaq sitting in his bed slurping jello through a straw, watching Susan Lucci kiss some blistering hunk nearly 37 years her junior, while a bed away a 93-year-old woman who came in to get four stitches in her finger when she slipped and fell just had her second heart attack after exclaiming, "My, that's a large young man in the bed next to me. Either that, or I've died and gone to the land of the Lilliputians.")

In any case, we're still talking L.A., so we might as well address the Clippers. But they were really the team to watch last year, with all that talent, young as it may have been. They acquired Andre Miller, but Miller never has been to the playoffs before, either, so it's not like they got this savvy team leader who is going to re-direct the youngsters. I still think, though, that the Clippers, top to bottom, are the most fun team to watch in the league.

Sacramento, obviously, remains highly talented, and the addition of Keon Clark makes them that much more interesting -- though it remains to be seen what effect Clark and Chris Webber will have on one another off the court. And the Kings have, unfortunately, gotten to the point where they are a fun team to watch that needs to prove it can beat the Lakers in the playoffs before anybody takes them seriously. The Buffalo Bills, if you will.

Portland got rid of one troubled soul in Shawn Kemp, but picked up two more in Jeff McInnis and Qyntel Woods, so it's not like they are making any huge strides toward reputation cleansing -- though at some point Damon Stoudamire is going to have to be dealt somewhere.

And Phoenix and Seattle, well, who knows what they have? The Suns' draft pick, Amare Stoudemire, is all the rage, already predicted to be the Rookie of the Year. But they also are still saddled with the contracts of Penny Hardaway and Tom Gugliotta, and when your two highest-paid players are your least productive, that does not bode well.

And Seattle's fate rests on the decision of Rashard Lewis. If he stays, they still are on the bubble to make the postseason. And if he leaves, look for a Gary Payton sweepstakes and the stockpiling of lottery picks.

Basically, everything remains status quo in the Pacific Division, with the Warriors the team that could make the most significant improvement. Another way of saying that, of course, is that they can't get any worse.

A 21-61 record, a coach's firing, player dissension, position uncertainty, a story about how the owner is in litigation with everybody but his wife ... the place needed a fresh face more than a leper colony.

It came in the form of Eric Musselman, the son of former coach Bill Musselman. Now, we don't know a great deal about Eric, but here is a story about Bill, told to me by former Washington Bullets sharpshooter Tim Legler.

Legler was on one of his many 10-day contracts, and he was in the workout room when Musselman came wandering in. He didn't say anything to Legler but hopped on the treadmill, turned it up as fast as it could go, increased the vertical as high as it could go and ran as fast as he could until he became so exhausted he crumbled at the bottom of the machine. He didn't even bother turning it off and just fell off the back and laid there.

"He was the most intense person I've ever met," Legler told me.

Now, you've got to think that some of that has rubbed off on old Eric, wouldn't you?

	It would not surprise me to see Fortson suspended once or twice this season for conduct detrimental to the team, just so Musselman can get his point across.

I get the feeling Musselman is going to come in, listen to Danny Fortson gripe for a few minutes, listen to Antawn Jamison moan for a few more, and then tell everybody to shut up for the rest of the year. He is not going to listen to it. It would not surprise me to see Fortson suspended once or twice this season for conduct detrimental to the team, just so Musselman can get his point across.

Because the one thing the Warriors need more than anything is leadership -- somebody to define roles, somebody to tell Jamison he is the power forward and Fortson he is the specialist coming off the bench and maybe, just maybe, tell Erick Dampier that he better start earning his $49 million instead of making Joe Barry Carroll look like Rick Barry Carroll.

The Warriors now have a nice young nucleus, with Jamison, Jason Richardson at shooting guard and rookie Mike Dunleavy at small forward. Dunleavy's inside-outside game should complement the game of Jamison very well.

The question, as it has been for the past few seasons, is what are they going to do at point guard. They liked what they saw in Gilbert Arenas in the meaningless months of December through April last year, but he is still unproven. And it looks like they are going to experiment with rookie Jiri Welsch there. But it would be awfully nice if they could acquire an established point guard (Stoudamire?) to run the team instead of having to wait a few seasons for Arenas or Welsch to develop.

Look, this is not to say that the Warriors suddenly are going to jump into the race for the playoffs. In fact, they may very well finish last again. But at least now, they have some talent and they have some direction, which is more than enough to make them a team to watch in a division that seems set from top to bottom.

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.