I voted retire but that has less than 1% chance of happening. The next best thing, IMO, is for him to start. People quickly forget how well he played for us during the month or so stretch when Jordan was injured. Problem was that he was playing nearly 45 minutes a night. Personally, I think the minutes have just caught up with him now and he has very little left in the tank. The smart thing to do is start Fish, but Phil needs to do a better job with the lineups. Fish's minutes needs to be reduced, definitely. Shannon Brown, who we will resign, will be our backup but should be seeing the majority of the minutes. Derek averaged 30 mpg this season, that cannot happen. He has to play no more than 24 minutes, at the very least, his minutes should be split with Shannon, or whoever our backup PG is (not Farmar). I still think he fits the best with the starters, because I cannot image him coming off of the bench and giving us any sort of spark, something Shannon Brown can definitely do.
Sometimes it isn't about the spark. Sometimes, you just play your best players in the starting lineup. That isn't Fisher. Fisher, Walton, and Sasha should be seeing very limited minutes.
It's also about keeping a bench in tact. A Kobe/Ariza/Pau/Drew lineup starting is more than enough talent. We don't need to start our five best players and deplete the bench along the way.
Farm/Fish/Walton/Odom or Fish/Shannon/Walton/Odom is much better than what we have now. We have three point guards and another D-League player getting regular minutes, one of them needs to be moved.
Farmar/Shannon/Luke/Odom (???) vs Farmar/Fish/Luke/Odom (???) Gimme lineup 1 any day of the week. Honestly, Fish/Kobe/Trevor/Pau/Drew is fine as long as we limit Fish's minutes. He can still be effective. Give me a lineup of Farmar/Fish/Luke and I will shoot myself. No defense, nothing. That lineup looks absolutely terrible.
I voted for retire. Although I doubt that it's gonna happen. But in our starting line-up now, in this series, he's really hurting the team with so many clanked open shots. Those consecutive 40 minutes stints in the regular season really got to him. I personally think that Shannon is the better player at this time though, and I believe that he should start now. The minutes between the 3 PG's can just be divided among the 3, with Shannon getting majority of the minutes, followed by Fisher. But honestly, Farmar is playing better right now, but I just think he can be abused by Chauncy on D.
Ok, give me the lineup with Shannon starting over the one we start now... :O I think Fish is the perfect guy to come off the bench actually, he's not starting material and he's smart enough to lead that second group. His wasted possessions in transition are disturbing, and we get even more of those with the first group obviously. Farmar has outplayed him, Shannon has outplayed him, I really wonder how many minutes the dude should be getting at the 1. Sasha has not earned his minutes, it is simple just give Fish the time there, play Ariza and Luke a little more too. It would be like, when Kobe rests Shannon stays on the court and Farmar + Shannon play at the start of the second quarter, then Kobe comes back along with Fisher/whatever. We can't afford to start off slow, we should get Shannon to put his imprint on the game.
I honestly wouldn't lose sleep over us getting rid of Luke or Sasha since neither has had any effectiveness at any point this year
I disagree about Luke, towards the second half of the year he was pretty decent as a bench player, even posting up more than usual or me just noticing it more. He got torched last night but he shouldn't be playing in the frontcourt over Bynum. Luke is quite ahead of Sasha in the playoffs I wouldn't even put them in the same league.
Fish coming off the bench will only hurt the second unit. I don't see it working. Fish sucks now, but I think it's a by-product of him playing so many minutes. For more than an entire month Fish and Sun Yue were the only point guards on our roster. I think you guys are forgetting Fish filled in just fine when Jordan was injured. He was hitting his threes/jumpers, and we were fine. We need Fish to hit threes and jumpers when left open with Drew/Pau in the paint. If we limit his minutes he'll feel less fatigue later on in the season, and he'll probably start knocking them down. Shannon is more suited for the second unit. Don't get me wrong, Shannon > Fish, Shannon should get more minutes, but I don't want him starting. The spark he provides us is perfect for the bench. I can't see Fish doing the same. As for Farmar, I could care less for him. If I'm the Lakers, I shop him in the offseason when he actually has some value. Did you forget how terrible he was for basically the entire season? I give him props for stepping up lately, but I'm not about ready to forget the entire 82 games of the season, plus how bad he was last year after J-Critt was traded.
Definitely believe that. Sasha just straight up jacks shots now. If he had done that last year, he would've made them, but he has REALLY regressed with his big paycheck now. I cringe every time I see Luke attempt a shot, especially his patented "post up spin shot" all in a single motion. Dude does some nice passes though.
I agree, Luke hasn't been a problem. He's been decent for us lately off the bench. I'd still trade him if possible, but I don't see it happening. I can live with him at least, Sasha is horrible.
Fish will be fine on the bench, Bynum or Pau are always on the court with our big trio front court, there's no reason not to think he won't get the same looks. And Fish kills us in transition with those blown layups or forcing the jumper when we should get a guaranteed finish around the rim. Farmar > Fish over an entire season, I shop Farmar next year though due to the high value he must have now.
The thought of Fish coming off the bench doesn't sit well with me. Just makes our bench look weaker on paper. I still prefer him to start over Shannon regardless, but at least we can both agree Shannon deserves more minutes.
Yeah but if Fish plays this bad in the playoffs, not just a little slump, I have to weigh this a bit more heavily. Farmar can regress at any moment he's not a proven player but some GMs are in love with him, that's my impression. He's got upside which some suckers fall for and thus I'd love to trade him anyway.
Shannon has been getting 8-15 minutes a game, compared to the 24+ for Fisher. I think vice-versa is the perfect situation for Derek and Shannon should be able to log in some heavy minutes at this age. I wouldn't mind seeing him out there for a bit over 35 minutes a game. We can phase out Fish completely even, if we play Shannon like we do Pau, then finish the quarter off with a Kobe and Farm backcourt.
I think Fish's struggles is more of a by-product of how many minutes we forced him to play this season. If you're practically 40 your body can't hold up with such a long season. Historically, if you look at his career, he's been a pretty reliable shooter. His FG% numbers are probably skewed because of the shots he jacks up, but if open, he usually converts. I don't think that after such a long career in the league, those skills will just vanish over night. He'll be more effective next year if we decide to limit his minutes. Anyways, Smush > both :]
