Uh, he did a horrible job vs. the Pistons... Billups had a field day. Fish - poor shooter, low assists - even with Shaq and Kobe on his squad. What are we thinking? Pesky defender??? All his defensive numbers are poor, boards, steals etc.. I just don't get it. There are people here where all that needs to happen is the player be a rocket prospect and suddenly he is considered better.
Fisher wasn't good enough to keep his starting job and the lak show has no intrest in resighing him; I wonder why. Ever since he's been a laker they have been tring to replace him. Good D; where? He makes it look like he's putting forth effort but pg D has been the lakers weakness. So if he doesn't get good assist numbers, he does't have an offensive game, he's past his prime, he's overrated on D, he wasn't even a starter last year, So why would we want him to start for us? Because he has championship experience... so why don't we try to get Rick Fox too.
Fisher averaged 1.26 SPG in 21.6 MPG this year by being a below average defender....Sure... Come on now. It's not like he's the type of guy the plays the passing lanes like a Francis or a Drexler, which would inflate his steal total. This guy at the very worst is an above average on the ball defender. He's got good feet, uses his hand well, and is very strong. The guy is a good defender who can hit the open shot. There is a reason why Tyronn Lue rarely ever got off the bench in L.A. It's really wonderful that he became a marginal NBA player while playing for the Wizards and the Magic. I still think he can be a solid change of pace back up guard. But Derek Fisher, he is not. All you need to know about Derek Fisher is that he shoots 43.1 % from 3 point land for his career in the playoffs. That's 117 playoff games and a total of 334 3-point attempts. That's called the real deal folks! That many attempts in the playoffs does not lie. His previous 3 season (2000-2001 to 2002-2003), he shot a total of 624 3 pointers and made 254 of them. That's a 40.7% clip. That's top notch people. That puts him in the top 5% category in terms of long distance shooting. He can hit the open jumper. It's just silly and rather ignorant to call him a bad outside shooter due to one year. His career composite says otherwise. And his playoff reputation is LEGITIMATE! 43.1% doesn't lie! http://www.nba.com/playerfile/derek_fisher/index.html?nav=page Just say no to Snow.
Fisher was injured in the Wolves series. He was never healthy in the Finals. Also, the guy for his career averages 1.03 SPG in 23.7 MPG. When looking at his assists numbers, judge his ability to get other people involved before Phil Jackson started coaching the Lakers and instituting the Triangle offense. When has the Triangle Offense ever produce a prolific passing point guard? The guy in his first 3 years in the league dished out 649 assists in 3812 minutes. That's 8.17 APG per 48 minutes, which is good. Also keep in mind that by the 2nd half of the 1997-1998 season, he beat out Nick Van Exel for the starting job. He's not exactly my favorite player. I actually rather despised him while he was in L.A. But I'm not blinded enough to say that he is some kind of scrub, because that is far from the truth. The guy is what he is. He can be a key role player for a championship team, which means a lot.
OMG. You aren't mentioning he put up just 1.9 rebounds per game, .05 bpg(low height), and a bad 2.3 assists per game this year and this is with high percentage shooters like shaq and kobe on the floor in 21.6 minutes. His best assist count in his CAREER is 4.5 and that is with nearly 36 minutes on the floor with Shaq and Kobe. Thats bad. It shows that numbers for DF don't scale up as he gets more minutes.
Name me someone on those Rockets' championship teams that posted big assist numbers. Sure you have Dream and Drexler, that means Cassell and Smith should be racking up assists. NOT! BPG shows nothing about a point guard. RPG is a secondary stat for a point guard (unless your J. Kidd or Francis). Averaging over a steal per game for your career with a little over 23 minutes per game is pretty good. Like I said previously, the Triangle offense doesn't usually produce point guards with gaudy assist totals. Also, when you are on a team with two superstars or more (Kobe and Shaq, MJ and Pippen, Dream and Clyde, Dream and Clyde and Barkley), the ball is going to be in the hands of your superstars. Unless your Larry Brown, you put the ball in the hands of your superstars as soon as you can in every possession to create the offense. 13 of the last 14 championships have been won by teams without a point guard that averaged more than 6 apg (Avery Johnson in 1999 being the only exception). That is a fact! Back to my original contention, Fisher averaged 8.17 APG per 48 minutes his first 3 years in the league. That is statistically significant, especially when factoring in that he averaged more than 20 minutes per game. That at least provides a glimpse that he can create for his teammates if he is in an offense that does not limit assists totals (a.k.a. the Triangle). But the great thing in Houston is that all he has to do is push the ball up court, not turn the ball over, play solid D, and hit the open 3, which is everything that he is capable of. That's pretty much the only prerequisite that was needed for point guards in Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles to win 11 championships.
I just don't understand why people think Derek Fisher is anything more than a mediocore defender. Throughout the Lakers dynasty, the better point guards in this league have simply been ripping them to shreds. Yes, Fisher takes charges, but he clearly does not have the quickness or athleticism to keep up the top tier point guards in this league. Take, for example, some of these series during the Lakers' run where DFish was the point guard (I omitted 2004 and Chauncey Billups' bludgeoning because technically that's Gary Payton's fault). The only top tier point guard Fisher has been proven to guard effectively is Tony Parker and that may be familiarity. Oh and these stats are Derek Fisher in his prime. When he's wrapping up his 3 year contract and getting paid the MLE he will be even less quick and athletic as he was when he put together his earlier sparkling playoff resume for defense: Troy Hudson (2003 First Round) 23.5 ppg, 5.5 apg (2003 First Round) 14.2 ppg, 5.7 apg (2003 Regular Season) Mike Bibby: 22.7 ppg, 4.4 apg (2002 Western Conference Finals) 13.7 ppg, 5.0 apg (2002 Regular Season) Jason Kidd: 20.8 ppg, 9.8 apg (2002 NBA Finals) 14.7 ppg, 9.9 apg (2002 Regular Season) Tony Parker 14.8 ppg, 3.5 apg (2003 Second Round) 15.5 ppg, 5.3 apg (2003 Regular Season) Tony Parker 13.8 ppg, 5.4 apg (2002 Second Round) 9.2 ppg, 4.3 apg (2002 Regular Season) Oh, and yes I know i omitted Damon Stoudemire of 2001 and 2002. Pardon me for considering him to be a less than stellar point guard.
The Rockets need a PG who can: 1) Initiate offense quickly. Meaning get the ball into T-Mac or Yao's hands before the shot clock shows 10 seconds or less. Forget initiating offense off the dribble, just get the ball into a star player's hands, a la Kenny Smith's role in the early-mid 90's. 2) Hit an outside jumper. How much easier of a time would the Rockets have had last season if Francis didn't shoot an abysmal 29.2% from the 3 point line? Funny how guys like Jim Jackson suddenly become deadly 3 point shooters (40% last season) once they start getting a fair number of wide open looks? I expect the same results from a player like Fisher or Barry who understand their role and are placed in a comfortable setting every night. Remember, Kenny Smith wasn't a great player by any means, but he fit well on the Rockets because of his good three point shooting. 3) Play consistent defense and keep turnovers down. The main problem for Francis is that we were using an elephant gun to shoot a mouse. His ability to create off the dribble was huge at times, but ultimately led to a lot of bad passes and turnovers in critical situations when opposing defenses tightened up. There were many times where we just needed a reliable guard to get the ball into Yao's hands or set up a play. Francis's defense was also simply average, when we needed more toughness at the PG position. The Rockets were very bad at creating turnovers last season. Derek Fisher gives you a lot of that toughness and defensive aggression. In addition to every steal he got, he probably drew a charge on the defensive end. Here's my scouting report of Brent Barry and Derek Fisher: Brent Barry: Outstanding passer, fantastic outside shooter, great team player with a lot of unselfishness. Athletic player that can rebound and finish on offense. Negatives are that he turns the ball over more than you'd like, doesn't play defense well, and injuries are a concern. Also it's unclear whether his style of play fits well in a more half court oriented team. Derek Fisher: Good at orienting offense, has shot the ball fairly well historically (although inconsistently), plays tough defense and is a good leader on the court. A 'clutch' player. Negatives are that his shooting is erratic and he doesn't give you much in terms of rebounding or assists. Personally I think Brent Barry is the best fit here simply because he gives you so much offensively and passes so well, but Derek Fisher would be a tremendous acquisition as well.
While it's true the pick and roll has been an achilles heel for the lakers for a long time, I feel like that's particularly important to us considering Fisher. As much as Shaq didn't want to go out there and guard it, I doubt Yao will be comfortable doing it either. This is Fisher's record playing with a big man who prefers to stay down low on defense (much like Yao should) and, cause of that, i'd expect him to perform the same way for us.
Also don't forget...Fisher knows when to step it up when the team is behind...that is very important.
the fact that Fisher does not do anything spectacular is OK. He stays calm under pressure and takes care of the ball, can get it where it needs to be. For the moneys, he's the man to get.
Spurs vs. Lakers game 5. Not only did he not dribble the ball off his foot, but he won the game for the Lakers. I think that's a big deal.
If you are basing the argument to sign him on "career statistics", then why don't we go resign Hakeem. He was a monster in the paint over his career. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY? There is a reason LA (who can match any offer to their own free agents) is not interested in bringing him back. He will not be worth the money. If he does go back to LA (if Coach K suits up), he will probably resign for significantly less. He's getting older, slower, and more injury-prone. His shooting is slipping, and let's not forget his whole career benefitted from having people like Shaq, Kobe, Glen Rice, Robert Horry, etc. He got a LOT of open looks, and his numbers given that are not that impressive, IMO. If we just want someone to hit 3's, why not sign Wesley Person? He's like a career 45% 3-pt shooter and we could get him for close to the vet. minimum. Oh, and let's not forget Derek's flopping. You all are not employed by the Rockets PR department (at least I don't think you are). You are not required to spin every possible free agent transaction into the signing of Basketball Jesus.
i'll be real disappointed if we sign this guy. he got torched repeatedly and was ineffective last year. he couldn't beat out an aging gary payton last year and i think he's very overrated. he is amazing at flopping though. shooting under 45% when shaq and kobe are your teammates is not good.
90% of the league can do this. calm under pressure? he's hit some clutch shots but let's get it straight. when it's pressure time kobe is handling the ball and shooting it not derek fisher.
