Mike Dunleavy, former coach and general manager of the Clippers, takes a look at what the Lakers need to do to repeat their title next season. Dunleavy has coached four NBA teams — the Clippers, Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers. He was NBA coach of the year in 1999 with Portland.
The Lakers will have a lot of difficult decisions in the coming months, but this one is a no-brainer:
They need to keep Derek Fisher.
In a moment, I'll get into some of the other choices the franchise needs to make as it positions itself to make a run at a third consecutive NBA title. First, though, I'll explain why keeping Fisher is so important.
His leadership is essential, on the court and behind the scenes. His shooting is an obvious plus — he routinely makes shots in the fourth quarter that most guys not named Kobe Bryant might be hesitant to take — yet that's just one facet of what makes him such a valuable player.
Fisher has credibility in the locker room, and he's not the kind of guy who would have a problem delivering the bad news to Kobe if, say, he's trying to carry too much of the load himself. As a coach, you need someone who can deliver a message.
Back when I was coaching the Lakers, I had that in Magic Johnson. We had a core group of guys on that team that were tremendous people and tireless workers. Magic was our best player and, like Kobe, led by example with his work ethic. Just as important was the way he helped me as a coach, just the way Fisher helps the Lakers now.
When you're a coach, you might be able to identify problems and know what you need to do, but guys can get anesthetized to your voice. You can't be the only one delivering the message over and over. It's invaluable to have somebody on the team who's levelheaded and understands the reality, what's really going on, and can keep people in check. That takes a lot of the burden off the coach.
Magic and I were able to play good cop/bad cop a lot. The one guy that I had to continually keep motivated was Vlade Divac. As a player and a person, he brought everything to the table, but there were times he wasn't physical enough or just didn't show up in games when we needed him.
