The Fish Is Back!

Derek FisherUPDATE: Kevin Ding of the OC Register is starting soften his stance from this article. Had a funny feeling this would happen.

The OC Register is reporting that the Lakers and Derek Fisher have finalized a deal. Is the MLE too much to pay for the former Laker guard? Everyone’s got an opinion. I’d like to be the first to welcome back the Fish!

O.C. Register: The Lakers could use some of the old glory these days, and it’s coming in the form of Derek Fisher.

The Lakers and Fisher were close to an agreement Tuesday night on a three-year contract, likely worth about $16 million.

Fisher became a free agent July 2 in a rare development when he was released from his Utah Jazz contract — giving up the remaining three years and $20.6 million — because he wanted to relocate to a city where 1-year-old daughter Tatum could get optimal care for her rare form of eye cancer.

Continue reading ‘The Fish Is Back!’

Related Posts  -
Celebrate the Fish; eat some sushi! It’s D-Fish day!
Welcome back D-Fish, Lakers officially ink Fisher
D-Fish Better Than Expected
More news on the reason Fisher leaving Jazz
Fisher considered retiring before signing with Lakers

119 Responses to “The Fish Is Back!”


  1. Gravatar Icon 1 Rpoc

    I would be more excited if it weren’t for the price

  2. Gravatar Icon 2 Ignard

    Thats cool, definitely an upgrade from Smush but we still need a point guard, but i’m happy to have Fish back and i hope the best for his daughter.

  3. Gravatar Icon 3 lakers4life

    is it the full MLE??

  4. Gravatar Icon 4 One35

    Yuck

  5. Gravatar Icon 5 ray

    i agree, rpoc. to commit that kind of money to someone who cannot fully commit to the franchise is a mistake. nothing against fisher, but that’s probably the best way to look at this…as a business, and maybe the minimum should have been given to him. however, i stand behind my lakers and hopefully, this will be the start of better deals to come

  6. Gravatar Icon 6 kb24 lala land

    this is great but the price is kind of high. This moves will go to waste if we dont get another big man. Get kgggggggggggggggggggggggg.

  7. Gravatar Icon 7 "Billy" Kupchak

    Who is this guy?!? ~lol~

  8. Gravatar Icon 8 J-Cool

    lakers4life

    No It Is Not The Full MLE.

  9. Gravatar Icon 9 J-Cool

    No It Is Not The Full MLE We Gave Him.

  10. Gravatar Icon 10 Brandon

    Great signing by the lakers, and we have a little bit left of the MLE to get someone else that can help, or in a trade. One more inpact player can put us in the elite group of teams (which are all in the west).

  11. Gravatar Icon 11 Kenny

    its 5.3 of the 6.6 of the mle

    WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12. Gravatar Icon 12 LakerNation1

    Mister .4 returns!

  13. Gravatar Icon 13 J-Cool

    We Just Need A Big Man But Who Can We Get In Free Agent?

  14. Gravatar Icon 14 Newtdog

    This is good. for a few reasons…
    1. The price is not that high…..We are getting Fisher at a cheaper price than we would have been able to get him in a normal free agent situation. Probubly closer to what we offered him when he left the lakers.
    2. Kobe will Stay…..Aside from the care that his daughter can get, i don’t think Fisher would come back unless he knew that Kobe was staying. Furthermore, I don’t think that Kobe will leave fisher behind, if they are as good of friends as everyone says.
    3. I don’t feel as bad now if they have to sacrafice Farmar in a KG deal. I really like Farmar, but if he is the tradebait that we need to land KG, then so be it. We still have Crittendon, and I think he’s gonna be pretty damn good and will be able to learn behind Fish.
    4. Finally, Fisher is a Laker veteran. He knows the offense, he can play D and can hit the open shot and most importantly…he has heart. That is all we need out of him. We do not need a pointguard that scores 15 points a game. Remember, fisher ran the offense during the three-peat. This is awesome news for Laker nation!!!

  15. Gravatar Icon 15 mlkg721

    Well, so much for signing someone else who can help. Who the hell are we gonna get with 1.3 mill? We need another defensive player in the worst way, and another big. I hope we’re happy with the money we’ve spent. One thing it does pretty mmuch say, it might be a wrap for Mr. Farmer.

  16. Gravatar Icon 16 LakerNation1

    why such negativity in here? i thought we all liked D-fish….good player at a good price if u ask me…

  17. Gravatar Icon 17 ray

    yeah, maybe adding farmar will put the finishing touch on a trade for garnett

  18. Gravatar Icon 18 Robert

    Fisher only shot 38% from the floor this year. That’s horrible! He plays hard and plays good defense, but that shooting percentage is terrible.

    Check out this important website, by the way: http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com my personal favorite. Very important free videos to watch online on various very important topics.

  19. Gravatar Icon 19 gugy

    welcome back home Fisher.

    Now we need to land KG ASAP. Why is taking sooooo loooong?

  20. Gravatar Icon 20 k0be da 1 andonly

    THE FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!!! IS BACK IN OUR LAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  21. Gravatar Icon 21 tamakin

    [quote comment="6750"]THE FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!!! IS BACK IN OUR LAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]
    hahaahaha… now we need the big fish–KG … cupchak, make it happen… you’re going in the right direction now!

  22. Gravatar Icon 22 LAKobe4Life

    CAN WE FUKIN LAND KG ALREADY!!!!!! DAMN, WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH EM!!!!!!!!!!

  23. Gravatar Icon 23 tamakin

    KG is next… now that we got Fish, we can afford to get rid of Farmar

  24. Gravatar Icon 24 lakers4life
  25. Gravatar Icon 25 Anonymous

    [quote comment="6754"]CAN WE FUKIN LAND KG ALREADY!!!!!! DAMN, WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH EM!!!!!!!!!![/quote]
    Half of you guys are retarded telling Cupcake to get it done when the final decision is on Minny’s hands to finalize it. The blame for everything bad isn’t all on Cupcake just because Koby went on a rant/frustration tirade calling people out. Honestly, if Minnesota doesn’t pull this deal, they’ll regret it. They can get something for Garnett now rather than nothing next year when he opts out.

  26. Gravatar Icon 26 Fatty

    KG to LA [Trade-O-Meter]

    Measures chance in percentage of KG coming to Lakers

    Thanks to Darkice18 optimism and Hugo Boss visiting, the Meter is measuring a strong [95%]

    The [O-Fish-al-Meter] has been retired and will return to his normal job as a water meter in Flagstaff, Arizona.

  27. Gravatar Icon 27 kb2481

    welcome back fish!! we missed u

  28. Gravatar Icon 28 GoGi

    [quote comment="6756"]http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=981~2748~1998~3002~617~261~998~387&teams=16~16~16~16~16~13~13~13[/quote]
    bad trade were giving up too much.were basicly getting 2 PG we hav enough PG’s

  29. Gravatar Icon 29 tamakin

    why are some of you guys so bummed the Lakers spent most of the MLE on Fish? by the way, Fish got rid of his agent last week and now has the same agent that Kobe has, Rob Pelinka

  30. Gravatar Icon 30 kb24mvp

    [quote comment="6745"]Well, so much for signing someone else who can help. Who the hell are we gonna get with 1.3 mill? We need another defensive player in the worst way, and another big. I hope we’re happy with the money we’ve spent. One thing it does pretty mmuch say, it might be a wrap for Mr. Farmer.[/quote]

    ur a hater dude.fish is better than steve francis.ur just a francis fan,now you’ll be a clipper fan cuz thats where his lazy fat ass is goin.francis wouldnt do anything we need him to do.with fish it takes alot off kobe and we are 20x better on the D end at pg.once we get KG it will be unstopable we will be the 2nd or third best team in the league(with KG)and even by some FAT chance we don’t get him we are 4th or 5th best.you’ll see this is where fisher belongs.{Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.} his averages with GS and uth its not fair he wasnt the point guard on those teams or the team wasnt right for him.all this 38% {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.},he averaged 43%(excluding rookie yr played 6gms 28%)and his career 3pt is 43%THATS GREAT %!!! thats pretty much is what we need him for is to hit wide open 3s which he will get alot.AND NOTHING MEASURES HIS HEART AND DESIRE;HE IS A TRUE LAKER AND HIM AND KB24(MVP) PAIRED WITH KG WOULD BE HUGE.{Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.} phx those guys are chicken {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.} there show it would be L.A. and San Antonio battles for a while.
    GO LAKERS!!! WELCOME BACK D-FISH YOUR THE MAN I REMEBER YOUR .4 SHOT, YOUR THE MAN!!!(and another thing that will be 2 clutch players on this team,better than any other pg out there)NEXT KG CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN THAT LAKER UNI SOON(I BET ANYTHING HE’LL BE HERE SOON) KB KG D-FISH 3-5 PEAT!!!!!!! BELIEVE!!! {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.} U!!!

  31. Gravatar Icon 31 Fatty

    Mitch, Do it now. Pull the trigger. Get on your knees and beg Mckale. Do it, just do it. Don’t waste no more time. Do it now. Someone is making light of people with a mental handicap. So please do it before he disparages someone else, like physically handicapped people.
    Cmon, Mitch you can do it.

  32. Gravatar Icon 32 Lakernut

    Everybody should stop {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.}ing about the Mid Level!this is Derek Fisher were talking about!not Steve Blake or any other bum who is commanding the same ammount of money, look at how Deron Williams played next to Fisher, DFish will be great for Javaris and Jordan.Welcome back Fish!

  33. Gravatar Icon 33 schnide

    http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_22713.shtml
    Other important figures agreed to on Tuesday were the Mid-Level Exception, which will be $5,356,000, and the luxury tax threshold, set at $67,865,000.

    we used the full MLE

  34. Gravatar Icon 34 Kenny

    [quote comment="6760"][quote comment="6756"]http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=981~2748~1998~3002~617~261~998~387&teams=16~16~16~16~16~13~13~13[/quote]
    bad trade were giving up too much.were basicly getting 2 PG we hav enough PG’s[/quote]

    there is no such thing as a bad trade as long as were getting KG in return without giving up kobe

    Fisher/Critt
    Kobe/Mo
    Luke/Luther head
    KG/Vlad
    Mihm :(/turiaf

    i like itt! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

    but doubt were re signing mihm so wed have to find some center

  35. Gravatar Icon 35 Fatty

    lakers4life

    Espn trade machine has not been updated yet for this year. All of the figures are wrong. Those dudes need to update it.

    Its 10 O’clock, do you parents know where your bloggers are?
    Time for Fatty to hit the bed.

    Fishers back, Yeah!!!!!!

  36. Gravatar Icon 36 lakerfreak

    yeah and that gives us some money to sign a vet pf/c

  37. Gravatar Icon 37 NY Kobe Fan 8

    welcome back

    loved this cat since .4

    i hate spurs

  38. Gravatar Icon 38 Fatty

    Kenny

    How you going to find a center?
    And when you do, how are you going to pay for him?

  39. Gravatar Icon 39 Kenny

    idk but i doubt mihm is coming back unless he gets a sudden change of mine when he see KG back and signs for like 2 yr 5 mil deal……..which hes looking for more like 4 yr/18 mil

  40. Gravatar Icon 40 cyrus

    Welcome Back Fish, you deserve every penny they are paying you. Fish is the spirit of this team, he has contributed to 3 NBA titles for the Lakers.

    Now, everything is falling in the right place, my confidence in getting Garnett is unshakable now. Garnett will be a Lakers uniform in October.

    Fatty,

    I am very disturbed that we spent big chunk of the MLE on Fish, I was hoping we would use it to get Smush. Just to have somebody to blame everything on. Who is gonna take the blame now? hahaha

  41. Gravatar Icon 41 Conor

    This is awesome! Im so happy about this

  42. Gravatar Icon 42 darkice18

    some guy on LakersGround.net wrote this….

    [quote post="509"]I heard it this morning on Fred Roggin and Simers Square. Near the end of the show, Fred told TJ Simers that Phil Jackson wants Artest. Fred said that Jeanie Buss had told him so. He went on to say that Phil Jackson is the only coach who can control such a player. Whether he can control Artest or not, that is not the issue, it’s weather we can acquire him. Do we really need another Rodman or Isiaiah Rider. Can we come up with a decent package. I think he would be a better fit and a better defender than Kwame.

    http://lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=44785/quote

  43. Gravatar Icon 43 Rpoc

    I like D-Fish but you guys are not seeing the big picture here.

    The advantage of getting Fisher with the minimum is you have the MLE left.

    You use that MLE on a big because any KG/JO trade will result in a decrease of depth in the front court, especially now that Marc Gasol is a year away.

    Like signing Magloire or Darko.

    That option is gone now.

    Fisher will be blamed soon enough. It’s inevitable.

  44. Gravatar Icon 44 Fatty

    Kenny
    I don’t know either. That’s the problem we have if we send all our big guys away in a trade. How much is Mimm worth?
    I was thinking 2.5 - 3.5

    If some team offers him more we are in trouble. I saw our summer league guys play tonite on NBA TV and none of them looked to good at the center. This will be interesting to see how desperate we are and how willing is Buss to go over the lux cap.

  45. Gravatar Icon 45 kb24mvp

    now hopefully mitch is pullin deal with minny.it makes it more interesting i think it will be a better even better deal for minny add another youngin to the deal cuz dats what they want.they tryin to get rid of jaric and hudson.WHO’S there PG? FAMAR WOHOOOO!lol

    bynum(young bright future)
    kwame(9mil off da books next year)
    odom(only 13mil and he can help mold those young players and he will be better in the lead or secondary role with anyone else)
    and farmar(young talent)

    all there needs are filled and is gonna be the best deal they are gonna get by far especially this is the last time they are gonna get sumtin for KG

    bynum/odom/kwame/farmar for KG and mayb filler, works for both teams!

  46. Gravatar Icon 46 Fred A.

    HAY Da’ Fish is back. Welcome Back Home FISH.
    One Down, Two more to go. Those two are KG and Ron Artest!!!
    With Derek Fisher coming back it took a little bit of my stress away when thinking of the LAKERS.

  47. Gravatar Icon 47 foshizzelmynizzle....

    d fish aint gonna do {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.}

  48. Gravatar Icon 48 Kenny

    i heard kobe was behind this all he called his agent and told him to contact fisher about becoming his agent and then he tealkd him into :D

  49. Gravatar Icon 49 Fatty

    Cyrus

    I miss Smush. Right.

    I say we blame Cookie instead. Or Jonnie Buss.

  50. Gravatar Icon 50 Kenny

    [quote comment="6779"]Kenny
    I don’t know either. That’s the problem we have if we send all our big guys away in a trade. How much is Mimm worth?
    I was thinking 2.5 - 3.5

    If some team offers him more we are in trouble. I saw our summer league guys play tonite on NBA TV and none of them looked to good at the center. This will be interesting to see how desperate we are and how willing is Buss to go over the lux cap.[/quote]

    agreeeee

  51. Gravatar Icon 51 Rpoc

    Mitch must be cleaning up the stage and putting the magic wand back in his arse. Fish and Luke will be the only acquisitions this summer.

    Ha, that would indeed suck wouldn’t it!

  52. Gravatar Icon 52 Kenny

    ooo i didnt know we could sign mihm and it wouldnt count against r cap

  53. Gravatar Icon 53 That's Right

    If the Lakers FO cant do more than Luke and Fisher (who fell into their lap - pure f’ng luck), then the Lakers become nothing more than a 40-45 win team. If that happens, the season ticket holders revolt, the stars stop showing up and Kobe’s gone! And Buss (all of ‘em) will deserve it.

  54. Gravatar Icon 54 magic32

    WE BETTER KEEP ROOM FOR KOBY KARL. I WAS WATCHING HIM PLAY TODAY ON NBA TV AND HE HAS A NICE STROKE FROM 3 POINTS. HE ALSO DRIVES HARD TO THE BASKET. AND WOULD BE A GREAT 2 GUARD COMING OFF THE BENCH FOR KOBE.

  55. Gravatar Icon 55 darkice18

    [quote comment="6791"]WE BETTER KEEP ROOM FOR KOBY KARL. I WAS WATCHING HIM PLAY TODAY ON NBA TV AND HE HAS A NICE STROKE FROM 3 POINTS. HE ALSO DRIVES HARD TO THE BASKET. AND WOULD BE A GREAT 2 GUARD COMING OFF THE BENCH FOR KOBE.[/quote]
    yea man Coby Karl is a steal!…we need to play him as a SF!!!

  56. Gravatar Icon 56 tj

    Fisher is solid and we need a point gaurd…but without KG and ARTEST or JO in the mix, The Lakers will not be true champion contenders…Minn is the sorriest franchise if they won’t take LO, AB, and FARMAR and Cook, or Brown. Minn becomes a young upside playoff team if they make do the deal with the Lakers…Minn should thank the Lakers for giving them the players we offer, it’s almost like Minn is taking the stance that they are doing us a huge favor and we are robbing them…Like they have one several championships with KG, be real Minn pull the triger.

  57. Gravatar Icon 57 Kenny

    i like that gay guy too hes pretty good i say we sign them both for depth on the bench

  58. Gravatar Icon 58 cyrus

    Fatty,

    You mean we are gonna keep Cooke??? I thought he’s member of “StiffRus” club!?

  59. Gravatar Icon 59 Justin M.

    I’m so glad we got a pg that can hit the open shot and play soild defense on guys like Nash. But on the KG thing, most likely he will go to the warriors and the reason it hasnt happened yet is because they cant trade the guy that got for J rich for until 30 days after the signing. If he doesnt go to the warriors in the week of the 30 day period than the Lakers still have a shot a KG, but until then let’s assume he’s gonna be a warrior.

  60. Gravatar Icon 60 klao

    did I read a different article?

    It doesn’t say they have agreed, they say they’re close to do in it.

    until they make it official, I won’t get excited about it.

  61. Gravatar Icon 61 ryguy2303

    about time we signed somebody…ANYBODY

  62. Gravatar Icon 62 tj

    KG should reject any trade offer the warriors make, and make it clear through his agent that he will only approve a trade with the Lakers….KG on the Warriors? No way KG on the LAKERS.

  63. Gravatar Icon 63 KGDMAN

    klao
    Your right its not a done deal it says they are close to a deal.

  64. Gravatar Icon 64 kgmvp

    I think it´s a done deal already cause fisher wants to play as a laker this coming season great for the lakers and for fisher
    WELCOME BACK MR. .4

  65. Gravatar Icon 65 J-Cool

    http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/abox/article_1760239.php

    Assuming the final details are worked out, Fisher would join Luke Walton and Crittenton as summer signees and bring the roster to 13 players; Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak plans to begin the season with 14 players and wants to re-sign center Chris Mihm. Second-round draft picks Sun Yue and Marc Gasol are not expected to sign with the Lakers until next year.

    The Lakers are still interested, however, in major roster upgrades if the asking price in trade for Kevin Garnett or Jermaine O’Neal drops

  66. Gravatar Icon 66 KGDMAN

    Not a done deal but close Im sure. OCREGISTER.COM “The Lakers and Fisher were working toward an agreement Tuesday night on a three-year contract, probably starting at about $5 million.”

  67. Gravatar Icon 67 Faith

    Let us not celebrate until they actually have a press conference in which Da Fish gets his #2 back. In the meantime yahooo!!! lol.

  68. Gravatar Icon 68 kb24mvp

    the only way i do the JO trade is if they only want LO or bynum not both(prefer they take bynum)other wise i think bynum/LO/farmar/and another player for KG is worth it,and on the JO trade JO has to accept an extension and not opt out next yr or it aint even worth it.
    KG WILL BE A LAKER!!!

  69. Gravatar Icon 69 pablasso

    welcome back d-fish!

  70. Gravatar Icon 70 JAY

    THE HEART OF THE LAKERS IS BACK. NOW WE CAN FOCUS ON A MAJOR TRADE. WE ARE SET AT THE PG, MIGHT WANT ANOTHER SHOOTER THOUGH. (LUTHER HEAD—COOK). KOBE IS KOBE SG. IF WE CAN STILL PERSUADE ROn artest to come here that would be great. SINCE WE HAVE SIGNED FISH, WE HAVE MORE FLEXIBILITY WITH SASHA AND FARMAR WE CAN ADD THEM TO PACKAGES. OTHER GMs ARE LOOKING FOR 2 YOUNSTERS W/ BRIGHT FUTURES. SO JUST WAIT A LIL LONGER N WELL HAVE A GREAT TEAM. WE JUST NEED THAT CONSISTENT BIG.

  71. Gravatar Icon 71 billyboy

    i like derek but, dude the MLE is too much

  72. Gravatar Icon 72 da1

    GOOD, BUT WE DESPERATELY NEED INSIDE PRECENSE.

  73. Gravatar Icon 73 Nikko

    woohoo! welcome back Fish!

  74. Gravatar Icon 74 Lakernut

    KG will be our inside presence!

  75. Gravatar Icon 75 hZm

    I for one like this.

    There was nobody better out there that we could have landed with the MLE (realistically). Fisher brings back a little bit of that old 3-Peat spark.

  76. Gravatar Icon 76 lakers4life

    we just need KG!! KMON MCHALE!! KMON!! KWAME(EXPIRING CONTRACT 9MILL),LAMAR(LEADERSHIP AND TALENT),ANDREW(YOUNG TALENT)

  77. Gravatar Icon 77 yeah thats right...

    if we can’t get kg then we should do this…

    http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=981~2748~1016~615&teams=11~11~11~13

    roster would look like this..

    dfish/farmar/Crittenton
    Kobe/Mo Evans/sasha
    Odom/Luke
    Ronny/Cook
    JO

    and sign another center to the vets minimum..
    but this is only if we can’t get kg..

    one other thing can someone wake up these two ex celtic idiots (Bird and Mchale)
    Kg hasn’t won any championships and is gonna leave for nothing at the end of the season!!
    JO is not worth LO and bynum, he is always hurt. WE would be taking the risk!!

  78. Gravatar Icon 78 J-Cool

    Lakernut

    Who Start At Center? Mihm?

  79. Gravatar Icon 79 lakersforlife77