Stepping up sans Boozer, Okur
In the long run, the Jazz are not a better team without Carlos Boozer and Memo Okur. For a short time, however, they can survive injuries to Boozer and/or Okur.
The Jazz proved it during their 120-96 victory over the Lakers on Friday night and, depending on how well Boozer and Okur are feeling, they might get another chance tonight against Miami.
Without Boozer and Okur, the Jazz got a roster-wide contribution against the Lakers, which was noticed and praised by former teammate Derek Fisher.
"What you find when key players or star players go out is, all of a sudden the ball is moving more, guys are touching the ball and guys are involved who normally wouldn't be involved as much," Fisher said. "You find out there are a lot of guys on a team that can play. You have to give them credit, for guys stepping into what their roles were [against the Lakers] and playing hard on both ends of the floor."
According to Fisher, the new personality a team gets when its top player (or players) are injured creates problems for the opponent.
"It gave us a lack of familiarity as far as how we were going to be able to play against this team -- more so defensively than offensively," he said. "Without those two guys, it really changes a lot of their play sets."
Asked to explained, Fisher said, "You know the ball is going to be in Carlos' hands a lot and you can find him on the low block. Memo is a guy that's going to pick-and-pop and you can find him spacing out at the three-point line. So all of a sudden, without those two guys out there, it took us a step back in terms of how to defend -- which guys were going to be where."
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Jazz fans' treatment of Fisher has created a stir in Utah, Los Angeles and around the NBA.
If you are reading this blog, you are obviously enough of a pro basketball fan to know the story: Fisher asked to be released from his contract with the Jazz last summer to play in a city where his daughter could receive specialized treatment for a rare form of eye cancer.
The Jazz obliged, Fisher quickly signed with the Lakers and everyone in Utah from Larry Miller to Joe Fan-on-the-Street wondered if that hadn't been his plan all along.
Those fans booed Fisher during during Friday's game and, clearly, he was caught off-guard by the reaction.
I chronicled part of a 10-minute interview with Fisher in a story and a blog after the game, and a handful of Jazz fans jumped my case for not criticizing Fisher. They suggested I am naive and/or stupid for being "conned" by someone who is intellectually-superior.
In response, I would like to say that Fisher might be smarter than I am. A lot of people are smarter than me. But after covering the NBA for 20 years, I trust my instincts when it comes to recognizing when I'm being conned by a player or a coach. I know how people talk and I know how they act when they are not being forthcoming.
Behind closed doors, Fisher may have conned the Jazz last summer. Only he knows his true motivation for leaving Utah, just like the Jazz know their true motivation for letting him go.
Given Fisher's up-and-down season and hefty contract, maybe the Jazz were glad to let him go and, now, are only too happy to accept the accolades as being an organization that put Fisher's needs and a player's family ahead of its own.
But I can tell you this with certainty: Fisher was genuinely surprised and upset over the reaction of the fans at EnergySolutions Arena, which is what I reported.
-- Steve Luhm
The Jazz proved it during their 120-96 victory over the Lakers on Friday night and, depending on how well Boozer and Okur are feeling, they might get another chance tonight against Miami.
Without Boozer and Okur, the Jazz got a roster-wide contribution against the Lakers, which was noticed and praised by former teammate Derek Fisher.
"What you find when key players or star players go out is, all of a sudden the ball is moving more, guys are touching the ball and guys are involved who normally wouldn't be involved as much," Fisher said. "You find out there are a lot of guys on a team that can play. You have to give them credit, for guys stepping into what their roles were [against the Lakers] and playing hard on both ends of the floor."
According to Fisher, the new personality a team gets when its top player (or players) are injured creates problems for the opponent.
"It gave us a lack of familiarity as far as how we were going to be able to play against this team -- more so defensively than offensively," he said. "Without those two guys, it really changes a lot of their play sets."
Asked to explained, Fisher said, "You know the ball is going to be in Carlos' hands a lot and you can find him on the low block. Memo is a guy that's going to pick-and-pop and you can find him spacing out at the three-point line. So all of a sudden, without those two guys out there, it took us a step back in terms of how to defend -- which guys were going to be where."
---
Jazz fans' treatment of Fisher has created a stir in Utah, Los Angeles and around the NBA.
If you are reading this blog, you are obviously enough of a pro basketball fan to know the story: Fisher asked to be released from his contract with the Jazz last summer to play in a city where his daughter could receive specialized treatment for a rare form of eye cancer.
The Jazz obliged, Fisher quickly signed with the Lakers and everyone in Utah from Larry Miller to Joe Fan-on-the-Street wondered if that hadn't been his plan all along.
Those fans booed Fisher during during Friday's game and, clearly, he was caught off-guard by the reaction.
I chronicled part of a 10-minute interview with Fisher in a story and a blog after the game, and a handful of Jazz fans jumped my case for not criticizing Fisher. They suggested I am naive and/or stupid for being "conned" by someone who is intellectually-superior.
In response, I would like to say that Fisher might be smarter than I am. A lot of people are smarter than me. But after covering the NBA for 20 years, I trust my instincts when it comes to recognizing when I'm being conned by a player or a coach. I know how people talk and I know how they act when they are not being forthcoming.
Behind closed doors, Fisher may have conned the Jazz last summer. Only he knows his true motivation for leaving Utah, just like the Jazz know their true motivation for letting him go.
Given Fisher's up-and-down season and hefty contract, maybe the Jazz were glad to let him go and, now, are only too happy to accept the accolades as being an organization that put Fisher's needs and a player's family ahead of its own.
But I can tell you this with certainty: Fisher was genuinely surprised and upset over the reaction of the fans at EnergySolutions Arena, which is what I reported.
-- Steve Luhm
10:00 AM
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12 Comments:
I distinctly remember Fish saying that he wanted to be closer to his daughters medical care, which was in NYC. The Jazz clearly expected him to sign with a North Eastern team and were suprised by the Laker move.
Jazzaholic
It's easy for the national media (i.e. ESPN crew), with no real knowledge of the attendant circumstances, to criticize Jazz fans for booing Fish. They assume it's cut-and-dry, we're booing him because he left and we don't care that his daughter is sick. That's clearly wrong.
If Fisher didn't want to be "genuinely surprised and upset" he should have let his actions (moving further from his daughter's doctor) match his words (wanted to leave the Jazz to be closer to medical care).
It appears that Fisher took advantage of the situation to play where he wanted to.
I agree with you Steve. Many of the fans who booed, or are overly critical of Fish's actions are just bitter. LA does have tremendous facilities. That was one of the places he said had the facilities. (Isn't it?) The teams in the East that he wanted to play for didn't want him (as I can recall).
Why the fans burned much of the respect that Fish, and the national media, had for Utah is beyond me.
Way to go so-called Jazz fans, you have now made Utah to appear spiteful. Fish truly is an amazing man. Good luck trying to lure many other good men here. Now the nation knows Utah's true nature (praise him while he's here, criticize everything once he's gone).
I'm with Luhm on this one. I was surprised when he was booed as well. I was hoping he would receive a warm welcome to see how nice the people are in Utah. I don't understand how people's thinking is so linear. They think logic is the only thing that dictates one's thoughts. Their train of thought is Fisher moved farther from New York and that's where his daughter's doctor was; therefore, Fisher just wanted to get out of Utah because now he is even farther from NY.
There are a lot of other things that need to be factored in, which makes this linear thought process incapable of understanding Fisher's motives. First, LA is known for their cancer treatment facilities (the city of hope), and have specific facilities for retinoblastoma, and anybody who understands cancer knows that their are a series of treatments besides the initial treatment and their are great benefits of living close to such facilities. Tatum got her initial treatment in NY, but after the initial treatment comes a secondary phase of monitoring the patient, something they needed to be close to a retinoblastoma monitoring facility for. Do your research, their are facilities desinged specifically for monitoring recovering patients of retinoblastoma, something that the Huntsman Cancer Institute does not offer, but that the city of hope in LA does. Actually, the Huntsman Cancer Institute does nothing for Retinoblastoma, so staying in Utah would have been risky for the health of his daughter, something any loving father would have taken note of and changed.
Here is another train of thought: What happens if Fisher is in Utah and there is an emergency where he needs to rush Tatum to a facility that can help her and doesn't have time to visit her personal doctor in NY? Where would he go? The closest retinoblastoma facility is in LA; therefore, he would have to fly to LA. Why not save the trouble and move to LA, just in case there is an emergency and they don't have time to fly to NY. Now they are 20-30 minute drive away from one of the countries best Retinoblastoma facilities. People say, well he is just an hour from LA via plane here in Utah. Well, you need to factor in the drive to the SLC airport, the waiting time, the flying time, and the drive to the correct facilities in LA. Now you are looking at 3 to 4 hours. I don't see how people don't understand why Fisher made the decision he made. Anybody who has kids has to understand what Fisher did. Fisher took a risk. He didn't know how much money he would be able to get signing with a new team. That was a big risk and he could have lost a lot of money. He did lose some money, but not that much, but he couldn't have predicted the future and didn't know what would happen.
I really don't understand why it is so hard to understand that Fisher moving to LA provides a great benefit to him and his family due to his daughter's circumstances. Not only are their retinoblastoma facilities available just in case their is an emergency, but Fisher has additional family in LA to provide a support system for him and his family, something he didn't have in Salt Lake.
I guess to sum everything up, sometimes things are not black & white, or linear, as some people make it out to be. Sometimes there is more to it than just distance (as most everybody who has made comments tend to think). Thus, everybody's negative feelings towards Fisher are just assumptions and can not be proven. I don't think the guy deserves to be booed off of assumptions with no justifiable evidence. He helped the Jazz out a ton when he was here, his contract was too big anyways, and neither he nor the Jazz were drastically hurt due to his departure. To me his motives were clear and honest, and until somebody can show me evidence other than "he moved further from his daughter's doctor; therefore, he was dishonest and is a traitor," I will continue to be a Fisher fan (but definately not a Laker fan!!!)
I distinctly remember that not happening. As I remember he said he wanted an NBA city that could provide the type of medical care his daughter needed, not specifically NYC or even somewhere in the NE. Besides, he left for less money, to go to a worse team.
The idiot mormons in this state are too brain-dead to think critically or compassionately on just about any given issue and obviously they've proved it once again. Embarrasing, just embarrasing.
The logic for Fish's move is clear and easy to understand, it's just one of his statements about trying to move closer the Tatum's treatment didn't work out the way everyone expected it to.
Fish wasn't booed. His decision to go to the hated Lakers was booed.
It's actually much better for the Jazz and Fish that he left. He's in a better situation, an offense better suited to his style of play, near his family, back with his old team, and close to 1st class medical care.
The Jazz gained salary flexibility, an open roster spot and minutes for Brewer.
It was win-win for both sides! The booing is a side effect of the team he ultimately signed with, not Fish. Benedict Karl got booed too for his poor choice of the hated Lakers.
Jazzaholic
Sam:
This has nothing to do with someone's religion (you're starting to sound like Coach Pill) and he did say he wanted to be near her medical care, which was in NYC, thus the assumption of a NE team by the Jazz and most everyone else, until the Lakers popped up the next day.
Jazzaholic
I'm with Luhm too on this one. I've got to admit, it would be harder to swallow if I felt like we lost a lot, but I think in losing Fish, we opened up a chance for Brewer and others to shine. In addition, he was overpaid and not having his contract on the book will sure be helpful when it's time to resign D-Will. And while he was here, Fish was nothing but a class-act and a professional. Was his timing on signing with the Lakers (pardon the word choice) a little fishy? You bet. But it's hard to fault a consistently classy guy for leaving to be somewhere where his daughter could be better cared for. Even if that wasn't the reason, I still applaud (and tried to applaud at the game over the boos) Fish for what he did for the year he was here. He brought leadership and class to the organization.
I have never posted a comment on any website every before... but I was SO embarrassed the way that some Jazz fans publicly humiliated Fisher the way they did by booing him on Friday. As Luhm reported, only Fisher knows his true motivations for leaving the Jazz; and whether or not he did leave for reasons other than what he stated does not matter. I personally think agree that the whole situation with how Fish left Utah was pretty fishy, no pun intended. HOWEVER... He did NOT do anything morally wrong... he did NOT violate his contract at all... the Jazz allowed him out. In addition, he helped this franchise for the one year he was here. He was professional, regardless of the fact that he probably didn't want to be traded from Golden State, and he gave the Jazz some much needed experience and leadership. Fisher never deserved to be booed. I wish I could help Fish understand that those boos are NOT representative of the feelings of all Utahns and of all Jazz fans. It's too bad a few bad apples make all of us Jazz fans look extremely bad in the national spotlight. For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be a Utah Jazz fan. I thank all the people in the arena that did their best to counter the boos with cheers of their own.
I too don't normally post, but I will in this case.
I think Derek did leave because of his daughter. The reasons are well explained by many people before me. The key too me is what did the Jazz gain or lose? In the long run they lost a leader in Fisher but that was replaced by Carlos and D Will. (Good for the Jazz) The Jazz financially improved. And the biggest key was that it gave minutes to Brewer in which we all can agree is an upgrade over Derek.
As always I truly appreciate this Blog that Steve on Ross write in. It is one of the first things I check every morning.
I was embarrassed by the booing of the fans as well. I also agree with a commenter the other day though. If Fisher had gone to any team but the Lakers then I doubt that he would have been booed. As it is, he signed with his former team and many Jazz fans feel slighted. I don't blame them, for feeling that way (and I doubt religion has anything to do with it). If Fisher is a sweet talker, then he's awfully good because he seems like a great guy.
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