Derek Fisher is a gift from the basketball gods, seriously, he is. I can't believe how I actually bashed the signing during the offseason, I thought he was just another wasted MLE in the Mitch Kupchak era. It turns out, I was completely wrong. I thought Fisher was done. I looked at him like another Aaron McKie. Boy has he proven me wrong this season. At the age of 33, Fisher is probably playing the best basketball of his entire career. His field goal percentage is the highest of his career, he shoots 45% from beyond the arc (holy shit), and he is averaging the second most points per game in his entire career. Seriously, everytime he shoots the ball, I think to myself, all net. I think he's only had two or three bad shooting nights so far this season. When he was first signed, I thought the guy was going to be another Chucky Atkins on defense, but I was wrong. Sure, he hasn't been great, but he has been much better than I expected. He hustles, plays hard, he never gives up on plays (unlike Smush), the guy is a freaking warrior. Last night, he pulled a Kobe. If he actually played during the fourth quarter, he could have scored 40. He was shooting lights out, 26 points in less than three quarters, 10-11 from the field, 5-5 from three point land. He made Mike Conley his bitch. And his play on the court is not all, the leadership he brings off the court cannot be replaced. Is it a coincidence that we all of a sudden look much more mature, and much better than last season? Is it a coincidence that the Jazz seem to be struggling so much this season? I think not. Derek Fisher is freaking awesome, he has earned every single penny. I can't believe I doubted the Fish, welcome back
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Shapecity @ Jan 9 2008, 03:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'> </div> Nuff' said
I was equally as critical of this signing. However, Derek Fisher has been EXACTLY what this team needed. Sure, Bynum's development has done wonders for this team, but I think Fisher is a bigger reason for success then him. Firstly, he gives us a steady hand at the PG. With him, we know what we're getting every night. He's been consistent all season. He's hitting the open jumpers others create for him and he's playing solid defense. It's not a crap shoot like it was with Smush, where we might get 15pts from him or we might get 2pts from him. The only thing that was consistent about him was his horrendus defense. The other thing that I think has been important about Fisher is the fact that he is a guy Kobe can trust. That's important for two reasons. First, he's not afraid to look to him if need be. However, the biggest thing here is that I think he's a big reason why Kobe trusts the rest of his teammates more this year than he ever has. I think he's been a calming voice to Kobe and has really gotten him to buy into the team strategy instead of the him vs. everyone else thing that he was doing the last couple of years.
