Kobe says he would love Derek Fisher to come back to Lakers

This is why you don’t let current players act as your GM.

Derek Fisher is back with the Thunder this season on a one-year minimum contract, and after that he is expected to retire. Fisher was one of the great role players of his era and had a skill set that fit beautifully with Phil Jackson’s triangle offense, but he is a shell of that former player. In the 24 games he got in last season for the Thunder he shot 33.3 percent, had a PER of 7 and was a defensive liability. To be fair he was better during the playoffs when forced in duty with Russell Westbrook down, he averaged 8.7 points a game and shot 47 percent from three, but his PER of 11.2 speaks to his inefficiency and his defense was still bad (for every charge he drew there were a few times his guy just blew by him).

But Kobe Bryant wants him back on the Lakers.

Kobe was in Dubai promoting health and fitness (apparently diabetes is an issue there as it is in this country) and during and interview was asked about his favorite players (hat tip to Serena Winters and Kobe Legends).

“My all time favorite teammate has always been Derek Fisher. He’s been my favorite teammate, I would love to see him back in a Lakers uniform so we could kind of finish out together.”

With all the cap space and moves the Lakers will try to make next summer, I don’t really see Fisher fitting in those plans. He’s not exactly a rebuilding piece.

By the way, Kobe talked about his diet in another interview and sounded a lot like Ray Allen when he spoke to PBT.

“The hardest part about getting older when you play in the NBA is not the training, because you’re so used to training for so many years, the hardest part is being able to change your diet. You’ve been accustomed to eating crap food your entire life, now you have to have a determination, an inner struggle with yourself, to put that stuff to the side and start eating healthy again. I made the change about three, three-and-a-half years ago.”