It is Derek Fisher night in Dallas as the veteran begins his 17^th NBA season. The 38-year old guard and president on the NBA’s Player Association will suit up and likely start in his Dallas Mavericks debut. The Mavs will be Fisher’s fifth team in his career, previously playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder. He never played a game for the Houston Rockets after being dealt there by the Lakers last year.

I’ll solely focus on Fisher and what he brings to our team as we enter this game struggling, winner of only three in the last 11 games. The Mavs released Troy Murphy to make room for DFish most likely because Murphy was the lone Maverick with a non-guaranteed contract and the eventual return of star power forward Dirk Nowitzki.

The point guard position needed the most assistance as Darren Collison’s consistency fell off after a fast start. The Mavs briefly tried Roddy Beaubois at reserve point before switching the duties over to third-year combo guard Dominique Jones. Jones actually replaced Collison in the starting lineup in Philadelphia and started again when DC missed the Chicago game.

With Rick Carlisle all but officially naming Fisher the starting point for tonight’s game, it’s clear that Carlisle and the Mavs believe Derek brings the veteran leadership to the starting group and can impact the team in several areas of the game. Fisher doesn’t have the sexiest career statistical numbers, but he can boast the fact he owns FIVE championship rings. He’s a winner.

An area of Fisher’s game that will also be instrumental is late game presence. Fisher takes and makes clutch buckets. He’s not your typical go-to player, but when given the opportunity in years past Fisher has been one of the best end-of-game shot makers the league has seen.

If anything the Mavs just needed to change things up. Collison off the bench might actually be better for him, because he’ll still play plenty of minutes but just in a slightly different role. DC can be an excellent change-of-pace backup point guard.

We all get our first glance of Derek Fisher wearing a #6 Mavs jersey tonight and see how this new experiment starts. Here’s a quick look at what Fisher has done against the Pistons in his career:

Game action starts a little later than normal with the 8:00 p.m. CT tip and airs on both FSSW and FSD. Tonight is also the annual Seats for Soldiers night! Let’s Go Mavs!

Ryan Wilson

Ryan Wilson founded Mavs Fanatic (Now Dallas Sports Fanatic) in January of 2012. He had a vision of starting something new and different. A place where fans of the Dallas Mavericks and fans of writing could come and be heard. A blog "Run By Fans For Fans". He is also a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago WhiteSox (His hometown team). Mavs Fanatic is now known as Dallas Sports Fanatic, a blog that covers all of the major Dallas pro sports teams.