I was fine with him leaving both times... I thought he was done when he left the first time, but he sure rejuvenated the team when he came back. But he was beyond done the second time and I am really surprised he lingered as long as he did.
He had a great personality, could hit the timely shot, and seemed to be a good counterpoint to Kobe, but he's one of the reasons you can describe the Lakers as not having a decent PG for years.
DFish?
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Re: DFish?
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Kilroy
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Re: DFish?
Never have rice at Hanzo's house...
Re: DFish?
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dockingsched
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Re: DFish?
out of all the terrible pg's in the league throughout the years, fisher was by far the best terrible pg.
"We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on." - Dumbledore
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TyCobb
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what would jack bauer do?
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Re: DFish?
In all seriousness I think Fisher was a superstar in terms of defense. I know I always say this about him, but I just don't see a better defensive pg than him out there when he was in his prime.
Let me say this first before you say "this pg did this to him" and "that pg lit him up for this much" and kobe had to cover other opposing pgs in desperation of finding an answer on defense... No elite PG is stopping another elite PG in the league. It just doesn't happen. The little speedster pgs are going to get where they want and score when they want (just like Kobe does against whoever is guarding him). You can only hope to slow them down.
With the current set of rules the only real answers to stopping a great pg is using a long defender (like LeBron on parker, kobe on westbrook, or even Dahntay Jones on Chris Paul) or a GREAT team defense. Tony Allen is a great defender but if he was never on the Celtics or Grizzlies he would just be considered a good defender. I think there's been minimal success with using speedy pgs against other pgs. Darren Collison vs Curry was a pretty good showing, but when collison defends stronger pgs like westbrook or even a parker he gets abused.
I'll admit the last couple years he was in LA he was pretty bad. But in his prime, he was a defensive superstar. People get caught up in Kobe and his prowess on offense that they just can't appreciate what fisher did. In terms of fighting through screens, he's the best in the league in the last 20 years. He plays defense the right way-he doesn't gamble, he's physical in the same way Artest was a beast, and he's a superior position defender with his ability to take a charge. You wanna say he flops and to a degree I would agree, but I'd also say he rarely tried to outright cheat the refs like a Ginobili, Wade, Varejao, or LeBron would with just faking contact. The difference is Fisher would accentuate contact and flop to show the refs that the offensive player was pushing off or moving on a pick or doing whatever to gain an advantage.
If Fisher was lucky enough to be put in another situation like Tony Allen in Boston/Memphis and got to be the primary perimeter defender on a great team defense, he'd be getting all the praise in the world. Remember Dahntay Jones played spectacular defense against Chris Paul for one playoff series and got paid $5-6 mil a year. Fisher played all out physical defense on a nightly basis for 15+ years and won 5 championships doing it. As a Lakers fan I'll never forget how awful it was to watch Smush Parker gamble on 95% of the possesions and lose us games at a time; and I'll never forget how Dfish completely turned around our defense when he returned. So in all seriousness IMO Dfish was a superstar in terms of defense, just in the same fashion as Artest got credit and in the same way a Ben Wallace got credit for it.
Let me say this first before you say "this pg did this to him" and "that pg lit him up for this much" and kobe had to cover other opposing pgs in desperation of finding an answer on defense... No elite PG is stopping another elite PG in the league. It just doesn't happen. The little speedster pgs are going to get where they want and score when they want (just like Kobe does against whoever is guarding him). You can only hope to slow them down.
With the current set of rules the only real answers to stopping a great pg is using a long defender (like LeBron on parker, kobe on westbrook, or even Dahntay Jones on Chris Paul) or a GREAT team defense. Tony Allen is a great defender but if he was never on the Celtics or Grizzlies he would just be considered a good defender. I think there's been minimal success with using speedy pgs against other pgs. Darren Collison vs Curry was a pretty good showing, but when collison defends stronger pgs like westbrook or even a parker he gets abused.
I'll admit the last couple years he was in LA he was pretty bad. But in his prime, he was a defensive superstar. People get caught up in Kobe and his prowess on offense that they just can't appreciate what fisher did. In terms of fighting through screens, he's the best in the league in the last 20 years. He plays defense the right way-he doesn't gamble, he's physical in the same way Artest was a beast, and he's a superior position defender with his ability to take a charge. You wanna say he flops and to a degree I would agree, but I'd also say he rarely tried to outright cheat the refs like a Ginobili, Wade, Varejao, or LeBron would with just faking contact. The difference is Fisher would accentuate contact and flop to show the refs that the offensive player was pushing off or moving on a pick or doing whatever to gain an advantage.
If Fisher was lucky enough to be put in another situation like Tony Allen in Boston/Memphis and got to be the primary perimeter defender on a great team defense, he'd be getting all the praise in the world. Remember Dahntay Jones played spectacular defense against Chris Paul for one playoff series and got paid $5-6 mil a year. Fisher played all out physical defense on a nightly basis for 15+ years and won 5 championships doing it. As a Lakers fan I'll never forget how awful it was to watch Smush Parker gamble on 95% of the possesions and lose us games at a time; and I'll never forget how Dfish completely turned around our defense when he returned. So in all seriousness IMO Dfish was a superstar in terms of defense, just in the same fashion as Artest got credit and in the same way a Ben Wallace got credit for it.
Re: DFish?
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Jhoby
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Re: DFish?
The reason Derek Fisher is so important to the Lakers is because of his relationship with Kobe. Despite his lack of skill and athleticism, he is what you consider the complete opposite of a mental midget (eg Dwight). Kobe respects the hell out of him and they played together for years. As long as Kobe has guys he can trust around him, he can do damage.