derek fisher buyout
The 37-year-old point guard gave no indication of his plans for the future in a statement issued by his business manager.
The eighth-place Rockets acquired Fisher from the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, and the club was eager to put Fisher into its lineup, even planning to pick up his $3.4 million option for next season.
"Derek's desire to win a sixth championship is what drives him and will continue to drive him as he moves forward," manager Jamie Wior said in the statement.
If Fisher clears waivers in the next few days, he would become a free agent.
CBSSports.com's Matt Moore says there are three teams that may take a look at the veteran.
"Miami wanted Fisher two years ago when he signed his last deal with Los Angeles so that would be an obvious start. The Celtics always look at players like Fisher dspite their need for athleticism being the most glaring issue. San Antonio's another target with the way they like bringing in more quality locker room guysThe Lakers traded the five-time NBA champion guard to Houston on Thursday for backup big man Jordan Hill. Los Angeles made the move partly to clear playing time for Ramon Sessions, acquired earlier in the day from Cleveland, but also to avoid paying significant salaries to three point guards.
Although Fisher's contributions have declined in recent years, the trade upset the Lakers' veterans — including Kobe Bryant, who considered Fisher an invaluable ingredient in the team's chemistry. Bryant and Fisher were teammates for 13 of their 16 NBA seasons, serving as co-captains this season.
Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum all said they spoke to Fisher over the previous three days since the Lakers traded him.
"I know it's hard to go through what he's going through," said Gasol, the subject of innumerable trade rumors himself. "We'll see what ends up happening with him, but I'm not sure what he wants to do."
Bryant said he had discussed the future with Fisher, but declined to share Fisher's plans.
Fisher had played in 537 consecutive NBA games and had made 371 straight starts over the past five seasons for the Lakers, but the NBA players' union leader was averaging just 5.9 points — his lowest average in 13 years — and 3.3 assists this season.
Sessions has injected quickness and ball-penetration skills into the Lakers in just two games. He had 10 points and six assists off the bench in the Lakers' 103-99 loss to Utah on Sunday night.
Backup Steve Blake took Fisher's starting spot, but the veteran hasn't scored a point in his first two starts.
Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday afternoon that the former Los Angeles Lakers point guard, who was traded to the Rockets in a surprise move before last Thursday's trade deadline, had reached a buyout agreement with Houston. The 16-year veteran confirmed the deal Sunday night, with his business manager, Jamie Wior, releasing a statement on his client's behalf:
"After much discussion and expressing their desire to welcome Derek to their team this season as well as the 2012-2013 season, the Houston Rockets and Derek have negotiated a buyout," said Jamie Wior, Fisher's business manager. "Derek's desire to win a sixth championship is what drives him and will continue to drive him as he moves forward. We thank the Houston Rockets front office for their interest, time and their absolute professionalism. There will be no further comment at this time."
OK, so Fisher negotiated a buyout because he wants to win a sixth championship — which I guess means Rockets fans out there shouldn't start airbrushing those "CONGRATULATIONS ON WINNING NBA FINALS MVP, GORAN DRAGIC" T-shirts just yet — and Woj reports that Fisher "will likely have a deal with a contender soon." Let's put on our thinking caps and figure out where he'll end up, shall we?
First thing's first: Fisher won't be ending up back with the Lakers — not this season, at least, and probably not at all, unless he wants to sit out for a full calendar year.
As Woj and others covering the story have noted, a rule instituted in the league's new collective bargaining agreement (which Fisher, as the president of the National Basketball Players Association, helped architect) closed a loophole that would allow players who were traded and subsequently waived to hop right back on a plane and head back to their old squads. The new CBA prevents a traded-then-waived player from re-signing with his original team until either one year after the trade took place or July 1 following the last season of his contract, whichever comes first.
While it's been widely reported that Fisher could head back to L.A. as of July 1, 2012, his contract actually runs through the end of the 2012-13 season — he's got a $3.4 million player option for next year, according to the ShamSports.com salary database, which may well have been one of the primary reasons the Lakers moved him. As a result, the July 1 that'd be relevant for Fisher returning to L.A. would be 2013, not 2012. That means that one full year from the trade date — March 15, 2013 — is the earliest Fisher could rejoin the Lakers. Considering Fisher's nearly 38 years old, has almost 1,400 NBA games on his odometer and is talking about winning another chip now, it seems unlikely that he'd be willing to wait that long to re-up.If not the Lakers, then who? Looking out east for starters, ESPN.com's Marc Stein tweeted Monday morning that Fisher's very interested in heading to the Eastern Conference for the first time in his career to join either the Chicago Bulls or Miami Heat.
The two East-leading squads may have interest in importing a veteran point guard with playoff experience behind starters Derrick Rose and Mario Chalmers to upgrade their backup slots, but while Fisher's kept himself in great shape late in his career, it's difficult to see him being able to provide the kind of consistent shot-making and attack-dog defense on opposing point guards that coaches Tom Thibodeau and Erik Spoelstra would want to see out of their second-unit triggerman in a perfect world. Then again, worlds aren't perfect when you're relying on rookies and journeymen reserves in lockout-shortened seasons, which is why the rumored mutual interest would make sense.
Beyond the East's top two teams, there don't seem to be a ton of natural fits for Fisher if he's looking to take another deep postseason run. The New York Knicks will ride Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis (Lord help us all), Fisher wouldn't seem to represent an upgrade over the Atlanta Hawks' combo of Jeff Teague and Kirk Hinrich, and the Philadelphia 76ers look to be all set with Jrue Holiday, Lou Williams and the emergent Evan Turner handling the rock. And while Chris Duhon is pretty far from a world-beater, something about the optics of that move doesn't seem to make sense for the Orlando Magic — "Thanks for giving us another year to figure it out, Dwight. Look, we got you Derek Fisher!"
Given their mix of roster and financial flexibility and their relative lack of proven postseason performers, the Indiana Pacers could make some sense, but I'm not sure I see why Frank Vogel would play Derek Fisher over George Hill or Darren Collison. And while "bought-out old guy goes to Beantown" is about as reliable an NBA meme as there is these days, the Boston Celtics' biggest need is in the frontcourt, not behind Rajon Rondo. Plus, the thought of Fisher in Celtics green ... it's kind of unseemly, right? Most likely, if Fish can't catch on with Chicago or Miami, he'll stay out west.
Working south to north in the Western Conference playoff standings, Fisher's already nixed Houston, the Denver Nuggets have the Ty Lawson-Andre Miller combo at the lead guard and the defending champion Dallas Mavericks have in-house options to trigger the offense behind Jason Kidd, especially with Rodrigue Beaubois in fine form for much of the past month and Delonte West soon to return from a broken finger.
The Los Angeles Clippers say they're out on Fisher, according to Stein, and as we've described above, the Lakers are definitely out. ESPN Los Angeles' Ramona Shelburne says the San Antonio Spurs might be interested despite finalizing an agreement with former Portland Trail Blazers guard Patty Mills this weekend, but if R.C. Buford and company can get Mills' contractual issues ironed out, there might not be enough minutes available for Fisher at the AT&T Center.
One intriguing fit could be the Memphis Grizzlies, who find themselves in the No. 5 hole out west, have just welcomed low-post linchpin Zach Randolph back from injury and could surely use an upgrade over the combination of Jeremy Pargo and Josh Selby behind starting point guard Mike Conley. The Grizzlies would have to do some maneuvering, as they're already over the luxury tax with the salaries they're presently paying, but if Chris Wallace could see his way toward making that manipulation work and he could get Fisher on-board with a deal for the prorated veteran minimum, it could be a marriage of need and fit. There hasn't been any scuttlebutt connecting the two sides thus far, though.
That leaves one Western Conference playoff squad, of course, and you'd have to figure it'd be a pretty appealing one for Fisher. In Monday's Oklahoman, Darnell Mayberry makes a case for the Oklahoma City Thunder taking a "one-year flier on Fisher" to stabilize the backup point guard position, which has been a trouble spot for OKC since Eric Maynor tore the ACL in his right knee back in January:
For 15 seasons, Fisher has given his teams toughness, durability, clutch shooting, lockdown defense and first-rate leadership and professionalism. The Thunder could use every one of those traits now and when the playoffs start in the near future.
Stein tweeted Monday morning that the Thunder are "weighing whether to make a formal bid to sign" Fisher; if Sam Presti thinks Fisher can help his club get past the Western Conference finals this year and improve its chances of winning the franchise's first title as the Thunder, he'll do it.
That's the thing, though — um, why would he do it?
Derek Fisher has the ninth-worst Player Efficiency Rating among NBA point guards this year. This is his third straight year with a PER under 10; the league average is 15. He's hitting less than 39 percent of his shots, less than one-third of his 3-pointers and he's turning the ball over about 18 percent of the time, a rate significantly higher than at any point since the 1998-99 season. Opposing point guards have been outperforming him by seven points and three assists per 48 minutes of action.
One might say that he's just not that good anymore; another, like our Fearless Leader, might also say that he "has been absolutely brutal on both sides of the ball over the last two seasons for Los Angeles." Signing that guy is the move that's going to put you over the top? When you can (and should) let James Harden play the Manu Ginobili role when Russell Westbrook needs to go off the ball, when you just spent a first-rounder on Reggie Jackson, when Kevin Durant can do evil things to defenses all by himself? It doesn't seem to make a ton of sense, especially if the vaunted veteran leadership/chemistry effect of bringing Fisher into the locker room doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot when he's never played with Oklahoma City's guys before.
Mayberry isn't wrong when he extols the virtues Fisher has displayed over the course of his career, especially come playoff time. Nor is he wrong to suggest that a young team like OKC could benefit from all of those traits, and maybe leadership and professionalism can overcome even this glaring a talent and performance deficit.
But the deficit is most definitely there, and anyone expecting a 37-year-old who misses more than six in 10 of his field goals and can't stay in front of the guys he'd be defending in the playoffs to all of a sudden start heating up and locking down is banking on story rather than sense. Derek Fisher may well end up with a contender in time to make a postseason run. Just don't expect him to be getting very much run this postseason.
Fisher, 37, had played in 537 consecutive games prior to being dealt to the Rockets.
The Rockets had acquired the Lakers icon on Thursday afternoon with the hopes of convincing him to stay with them the remainder of the season. Houston currently sits eighth in the Western Conference and hoped his locker room presence would help them make the playoffs and influence what had been a relatively young roster. They also have a need for another point guard while Kyle Lowry recovers from a bacterial infection over the next few weeks.
Fisher was genuinely torn by the situation, according to a source close to Fisher, which is why the Lakers and Rockets mutually decided to extend the deadline for him to report by 24 hours.
Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are still trying to fill the void created by Eric Maynor's season-ending knee injury, are deciding whether to register a formal bid for Fisher.
Sources say that the Los Angeles Clippers, by contrast, are not likely to try to sign Fisher, though they also have a need for a playoff-tested guard after Chauncey Billups' season-ending Achilles' tear and with Chris Paul carrying a heavy load.
Fisher is said to be strongly interested in joining the Chicago Bulls or Miami Heat, according to one source close to the situation. The San Antonio Spurs, sources told Stein, have not yet ruled out pursuing Fisher because their planned signing of former Portland Trail Blazers guard Patty Mills has been held up by the fact that Portland has not yet renounced rights to Mills.
Fisher was officially placed on waivers at 6 p.m. ET on Monday, giving teams under the salary cap 48 hours to claim him. Fisher was owed a little under $1 million this year and had a player option of $3.4 million for next year. The Houston Chronicle earlier reported that Fisher had given up his player option for 2012-13 as part of the buyout.
He actually waived that player option for next year as part of his buyout, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. It is the second time in his career Fisher has left a significant amount of money on the table. In 2007 he gave up approximately $8 million from the Utah Jazz to sign with the Lakers so his family could be closer to the doctors who were treating his daughter for a rare form of eye cancer.
Should he clear waivers on Wednesday evening, Fisher is expected to sign with a contending team. The Rockets gave Fisher's representatives permission to speak with about a half dozen teams to gauge interest in him during the buyout discussions, according to the source.
Fisher had made no public statements since his surprising trade from the franchise he'd spent most of his career with. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak admitted that he hadn't given Fisher or his representatives a heads-up that a trade was in the works, and that he understood if he was "emotional" over the situation.
"He may have caught wind of the rumor a day or two ago, but there was no heads up given," Kupchak said on Thursday. "It's not necessary, because a lot of times there's nothing to the rumors. How many times was one of our players traded in the last 10 days and it never took place? So you can't spend your time dispelling or confirming rumors.
"But when something like this does happen, I can imagine what he's going through. I've never really gone through it, but to be in one place, to have the kind of contribution, midseason, it's got to be pretty emotional. We'll talk at the right time."
Fisher would normally have had 48 hours to report to Houston for a physical for the trade to be completed, however the Lakers and Rockets mutually agreed to extend that deadline to 72 hours, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Fisher had a $3.4 million player option for next season. Fisher is free to sign with any other team but the Lakers if he clears waivers by Wednesday.
A five-time NBA champion, Fisher has no plans to retire. "Derek's desire to win a sixth championship is what drives him and will continue to drive him as he moves forward," Wior said.
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