OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – It seems even Chris Mullin is having a tough time watching the struggling Golden State Warriors.

The team’s executive vice president of basketball operations is rarely visible at games, and has been spending a lot of time on the road, most recently out of the country.

Even with Mullin in charge, the Warriors are still getting the same disappointing results.

Instead of competing with the league’s top teams, the Warriors have the second worst record in the Western Conference and are four games behind last season’s pace that led to a major overhaul and Mullin’s promotion.

Mullin, one of the most beloved players in franchise history, never promised to turn things around overnight, but he did say he expected the playoff-starved Warriors to be a legitimate postseason contender this season.

Yet many around this franchise remain upbeat, especially now that leading scorer Jason Richardson is back. Richardson had a career-high 42 points and eight assists in his first game back from an ankle injury in Monday night’s win over Denver, helping the Warriors end a nine-game losing streak.

There have been few bright spots for a team that won only 12 of its first 39 games. Golden State has missed the playoffs the past 10 seasons.

“They’re way overmatched in the Western Conference,” longtime NBA coach and current TNT analyst Doug Collins said. “But when you take over a situation like this, your patience has to be there, and what’s happened is all people know is the last 10 years they’ve been losing. … The hardest thing to do in sports is to break the losing culture.

“Mully’s going to do it. He’s a very smart basketball guy. He’ll get it done.”

That’s what team president Robert Rowell is banking on.

So far, new coach Mike Montgomery and a cast of playoff-tested veterans have been unable to establish any kind of momentum. Some nights, the Warriors play three solid quarters and one lousy one. Or they make a furious comeback only to lose late.

“There’s a reason why we hired Chris and put him in the position he’s in,” Rowell said. “We spent a lot of time together and I’m pleased with where we’re going. The hardest part is to lose basketball games and continue to stay upbeat. But I think we have a purpose, we have a direction and we have a plan. We’re going to get it done here.”

Center Dale Davis is disgruntled about his lack of playing time and wants out. Notorious season ticketholder Mark Anthony Jones, well known around the league for his humorous heckling from a courtside corner, already left. He recently returned his two tickets – $495 a pop – to the team and now follows the NBA from his couch. But the Warriors resold his seats the next day.

They signed Richardson and forward Troy Murphy to expensive longterm deals before the season started, and both players have begun to shoulder their share of the load.

The Warriors want nothing more than to end their embarrassing playoff drought, and the organization believes retaining the young talent such as Richardson and Murphy is a key step toward achieving that.

The team has fewer wins at this stage than it did a year ago during fired coach Eric Musselman’s second season. There have been occasional miscommunications between players and the coaching staff, which contributed to Golden State’s 111-104 home loss to the Orlando Magic last month.

Richardson noticed a lot while sitting on the bench for nine games nursing a sprained ankle. One glaring problem kept coming to his attention: effort.

“We have to have energy,” he said. “We’ve got a few guys playing hard, but we’ve got to get everybody playing hard. You get that and we’ll get on a roll again.

“This is the best team I’ve been on since I’ve been here, as far as teammates and the way we play together. When we do want to play together, we’re a tough team to play against. We’re going to try to bring that back to how we were before I got hurt and bring back that energy we have. It’s a long season still.”

Some at Stanford thought Montgomery was crazy to leave The Farm after 18 years and bolt for the unforgiving lifestyle of the NBA. But Montgomery said it this was something he’d always thought about, and the four-year, $10 million contract helped persuade him after he took the Cardinal to the second round of the NCAA tournament the past 10 seasons.

Three games into the season, Montgomery already had more defeats – three – than he did in 32 games with the Cardinal last season.

Stanford won its first 26 games last season and finished 30-2.

“I’ve got a list a mile long of things we don’t do as well as I think we need to do them or could do them in time,” he said. “It’s not something that happens over night. … I think that we’re a better team than our record, but that’s easy for me to say. You have to prove that.”