Oklahoma City Thunder: Adjusting to new faces

Derek Fisher now wears Thunder blue, not Laker gold. Which has got to be weird for Fisher. But it’s also got to be weird for his new Thunder teammates.

Think about it. You’re in the middle of a game. You have to make a split-second decision to pass the ball, your arms rise to zip the ball and you catch a glimpse of the face attached to the targeted jersey. Derek Fisher’s.

Doesn’t something inside say stop? Doesn’t something inside say, hey, he’s not with us. I mean, Nick Collison has spent almost a decade trying to keep the ball from Fisher. Even the young guys — Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden — have played nearly 20 games against Fisher. And then without so much as a practice, he’s with you, not against you. Don’t your instincts kick in and say, whoa?

No, they don’t, said Nazr Mohammed, “and I don’t know why. You would think you get a new teammate, you’d be scared, a little apprehensive. But it doesn’t really happen.”

I know, Fisher is wearing the jersey, but no good basketball player just sees the jersey. He has to recognize the face, too. Has to know when’s the right time to throw the ball to a certain teammate and when’s not.