Having said that, leadership is having the cojones to understand when your play is hurting the team and, like Luke, agreeing to take a backseat in the interest of winning. One could say that Fish is, plain and simple, letting pride get in the way of the team. However, basketball is a game of confidence as much as skill. Once Fish admits his skillset has diminished to the point where he should not start, his shot will get worse and a 3-for-12 night will become an excellent night for him. I think that Phil trusts him now because he has his eye on the bigger piece of the pie: the playoffs, and he knows that he needs Fish to remain confident until then. I would hope that if his plays stays as poor as now that Phil would then quickly pull Fish out of the floor, but the truth is that we will never know until playoff time.

This is the chickens coming home to roost. Maybe we should have kept players like Gaffeny, Gelabale ,or Kelati for depth purposes. Hopefully someone waived will be the answer.

My point exactly. They are losing to teams that they will see in the playoffs this year and that scares me. They don’t play with any urgency, it like they are playing with that same “wait until the playoffs” mentality that always gets us in trouble.

We are not the best team in basketball. Watch Cleveland play. They have weapons galore. They were smart enough to keep their full compliment of players. They had 15 until the waived Danny Green to make room for Z.

Even Denver has more confidence. They have made two additions that will futher exploit our weakness (PG). Afflalo and Lawson are great low-budget pickups that have hurt us already. Imagine what the playoffs hold. The Lakers need to pick up someone hungry from the waiver wire because our guys all look bored and disinterested. Just because we have a crown doesn’t mean we should be bourgeoisie.

Fisher would have to ask to be benched to not start.

I would have loved to see Farmar start, he is a headcase but I think if you give him a shot he’ll do the right thing, starting is a privilege that I dont think he’d want to lose. Look at the rockets game in the playoffs, he definitely came to play.

There is no evidence, that is my opinion. I don’t understand why people get so defensive about Kobe, I am a Lakers fan first, and, if in my opinion Kobe plays selfishly on certain nights I have the right to voice it. I didn’t say we’re better off without him. But I feel like we’re better off when he doesn’t force turnaround fadeaway jumpers when being double and triple teamed. Our bigs (Pau/Lamar/Bynum) all shoot much more efficiently than he does and he needs to learn when to give up the ball, and hence his “numbers”, when he is having an off night. To those saying that it was the fault of our other players that Kobe shoots so much (because they aren’t cutting, standing aroud watching Kobe with the ball, etc.)… would YOU make a cut if you were on the court with Kobe and he had the ball??? 9 times out of 10 he isn’t going to pass the ball anyway, so why make any cuts?

To wish anyone an injury… I don’t know.

Here’s the thing. You may not see why he starts. But Phil does. And so do the other coaches. and so does the team. No one on the team or the coaching staff has even come close to talking about shifting Fisher out. only the fans talk about it. That means something to me. That the coaches don’t talk about it. That it’s not a major story. They see the same game film we do. They have people working for them that give them the same stats we do. And he is still starting.

When Kobe is shooting roughly 20 shots per game, I am happy. It’s when he shoots 30 or more shots that you must be worried.

The problem is that Fisher took 13 shots. Fisher should NEVER shoot 13 unless they are gimmies. And don’t tell me they were all open or even most were open. These long 2pt shots, contested, by FIsher are horrible.

The rest of the team as well. No one should be shooting CONTESTED shots unless you are Kobe, and then only if you are feeling it. No, Kobe was not the problem last night, it was the entire team.

The team needs to come out with the right mentality. The mentality of busting balls. They came out meak. They were too selfish with the ball. Fadeaway jump shots are not efficient. Bynum was horrible also. They need to rekindle the passing that made them great last year. This is Pau/Lamar/Bynum/Artest major problem. They are NOT passing the ball well. And 23 shots by Kobe is not the cause of that.

They are not in flow and they are not trying hard enough. The only time this season they were in flow was right after Pau came back after the first injury. I think they won like 12 games in a row by an average of 16 points. Besides that point, the team has not been in flow.

And they were not in flow during the 5 games Kobe was out. Look at their offensive numbers, they were HORRIBLE. The stats do not lie.

Oh, that’s okay then. As long as you’re honest, being a classless unfeeling jerk is perfectly okay.

When I say Derek can no longer run or dribble I hope you realize I am saying compared to other NBA players he can no longer run or dribble.

I am not unable to appreciate what Fisher brings to the team. He can still pick up offensive fouls better than any other Lakers PG and he probably can still hit a clutch shot better than any other Lakers PG (although I am just guessing because we don’t really know). But he can’t shoot, can’t dribble, can’t move, can’t defend, can’t rebound, and can’t penetrate. So I just don’t know what he brings to the floor.

But like you said I don’t care what happens from game to game because aside from the rare midseason trade championships are won in offseason and in the front office. The only thing I care about (besides just enjoying the best athletes in the world move around) when watching the games is that our good players stay healthy. If we stay healthy we will win the championship most likely because we have the best players. Now would I like our chances more if Derek was replaced? Of course. The better players the better chance of victory. And I think Farmar, Brown, and Sasha provide more on the floor than Derek especially if one of them was starting and playing quality minutes with the first team. But we have been over this a million times…

I think the real interesting discussion is at the core of each one of us… would you rather win against a team down a player or lose against a team at full strength? Since nobody takes away the Celtics rings for playing against a Lakers team without injured Trevor Ariza and Andrew Bynum I’d rather just win. The Lakers still have their rings if Im not mistaken after beating a injured Jameer Nelson last season in the Finals. I mean the Magic did crush Fisher and the Lakers (swept the season series) with their All Star PG in the lineup in the regular season. Am I classless? Yes. Am I cold hearted? Check. But at least I am honest.

“I hate to wish for injury. Having said that, deep down, I hope Fish gets injured for the supposed betterment of the team”