Dallas Mavericks sign veteran point guard Derek Fisher: NBA News
Veteran point guard Derek Fisher has signed up for the struggling Dallas Mavericks franchise, it was revealed this Thursday. The Mavs who have been struggling to muster up win recently are still without their star player Dirk Nowitzki.
They started the season in a decent manner, but have now lost their last three games in a row. Some of the blame can be directed to the injuries to key players. Darren Collison missed their 101-78 home to Chicago Bulls with a sprained middle finger.
With Nowitzki still out for few more weeks with his knee injury, the 2010 NBA champions had to do something and thus decided to hire the services of Fisher who has 16 NBA seasons under his belt.
The Mavericks had their 15 man roaster full and in order to accommodate Fisher, Troy Murphy had to pay the price. He failed to impress so far this season and was just averaging 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in the 14 games played.
Jason Kidd was instrumental when Mavs won their only title in 2 years ago, and Collison though impressive, has found it difficult to settle in Kidd’s boots. Mavs are having problems in the point guard department and Coach Rick
Carlisle admits it.
“We need help at point guard,” said the coach after their loss to the Bulls. "We feel (Fisher) can help us. It's not a cure-all to all of our team challenges, but his expertise and experience will help.''
Fisher has played 1173 games over the course of his long NBA career with Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder and averages 8.6 points and 3.1 per assists in regular season games. He joined
the Oklahoma City Thunder in the post season, who demolished the Mavericks in last years’ playoffs and made it to the NBA finals, where they went down to Miami Heat.
Fisher, known for his 0.4 second buzzer beating shot in the Western Conference Semi Finals over the San Antonio Spurs, will be looking to bring his big game experience and class into this Dallas side. Mavericks had Thursday off
and it is expected that Fisher will practice on Friday to be ready for his debut for the Mavs when they play Detroit Pistons on Saturday.
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