[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

Ramon Sessions was supposed to be the answer at the point this season for the Lakers.  Turns out it was just a disaster.  Sessions was abused by Lawson and Westbrook in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs.  He was appearing in the first playoffs of his career and he played like it.  His outside shot was atrocious.  What are the chanes Sessions returns to the Lakers next year?  I say none. 

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

I don’t think it’s fair to say he got abused. The Lakers team got abused due to their inability to defend the high screen and roll.

I think Sessions is worth bringing back for the right price. I thought he did some good things. He actually shot it well during the regular season, but you could tell the pressure got to him in the playoffs.

So unless the Lakers can get an upgrade at the point, I say they bring him back.

 

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Sessions went from no expectations in Cleveland to championship expectations in Los Angeles.

A full summer of working out with the new mindset of these expectations and a full training camp/pre-season should have him right.

On another note, I think it’s time for the Lakers to take the training wheels fully off of Devin Ebanks and give him a longer leash.

[TyroberParticipant]

None? Really? Who do you plan to replace him with? Unless they trade Pau or Bynum and return a point guard in the process then Sessions will be back in LA next year. 

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

"What are the chanes Sessions returns to the Lakers next year? I say none."

It mostly depends on whether he holds to his pre-playoff statement that he intended to opt out of his current deal. If he opts in, there might not be a ton the Lakers can do.

LA should be kicking themselves for those mid-season trades. They wouldn’t have been able to get the Mavs pick because of where they finished, but they still could have brought in a young player under salary control this summer.

[goneParticipant]

 Wrong Lawson and Russ abused Bynum and Gasol on the pick and roll 

[Da1potParticipant]

 Ramon Sessions wasn’t the "answer," he was just a minor upgrade over two mediocre starters in Fisher and Blake. The Lakers bench is horrible and that is their #1 issue right now. Nazr Mohammed outscored their entire bench two games ago and he had just 7 points. James Harden outscores their entire bench routinely.

[llperez]

"LA should be kicking themselves for those mid-season trades. They wouldn’t have been able to get the Mavs pick because of where they finished, but they still could have brought in a young player under salary control this summer."

you called this a bad trade at the time it was done and are still calling ti a bad trade, but your logic both then and now doesnt add up to me. The lakers gave up two guys who were done in fish and walton. Unless people really want to give fish credit for his off the court leadership in helping the thunder, he really had zero impact on them getting to the western conference finals. He did nothing vs the lakers and for any criticism that people want to point at sessions, fact is he was better and a clear upgrade over fish. Also jordan hill proved to be a very solid big man off the bench and showed he can contribute and the lakers can have him back next year for 3.5 mill which im sure they will do. As for sessions, we will see if he comes back, but even if he doesnt the lakers still get jordan hill and shed the combined 9.6 million that would have had to pay fish and walton for next season. Would you give up a pick in the tweenties to aquire hill and save over 9 mill for washed up guys?

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

“The lakers gave up two guys who were done in fish and walton. Unless people really want to give fish credit for his off the court leadership in helping the thunder, he really had zero impact on them getting to the western conference finals.”

True, but Sessions didn’t help them get to the WCF either. Sessions is a nice backup, but so is Blake. What the Lakers did was cash in a future cost-controlled asset for someone who is very similar to someone they already overpaid and wasn’t going to drastically change their ability to win the 2012 title. Fisher is not good anymore, but his being bad now was not going to limit them later.

“Also jordan hill proved to be a very solid big man off the bench and showed he can contribute and the lakers can have him back next year for 3.5 mill which im sure they will do. As for sessions, we will see if he comes back, but even if he doesnt the lakers still get jordan hill and shed the combined 9.6 million that would have had to pay fish and walton for next season. Would you give up a pick in the tweenties to aquire hill and save over 9 mill for washed up guys?”

Hill is a UFA because the Rockets declined his option prior to this season. Even then, he is at best is a backup big for their rotation. As for who I would covet, and as an aside I still think there is going to be a team in the top ten to have the sense to take Royce White, but there are not reports out there that agree with me, but the possibility of having him step in as the long-term “New Odom” with Bynum and Pau would have been a million times better. For me, this isn’t a great draft but that is great player. I also think Andrew Nicholson would be a really good value (provided he doesn’t go into Chicago and reveal he is closer to 6’7” and 220 lbs. than his listed 6’ 9” 240 lbs.) He is someone who really grew on me over the course of the year. If they wanted to gamble on a long-term project to bring along slowly or at very least be a valuable tradable asset, they could have possibly gotten Meyers Leonard. I don’t think he is ready for the NBA, but I’m sure LA could have sent him to play for the D-Fenders for a long enough spell to really intrigue some rebuilding team, especially given that they would have been looking at a scenario where they would have their pick from the Mavericks rolled over which would give them the trade chips of two 2013 first round picks, Leonard, and the expiring contracts of Walton, Fisher, and McRoberts.
 

[iguapops420Participant]

 Blake is an atrocious backup pg. In fact, he has become simpy a piss poor player in general. The Lakers would have been better off bringing Sesh off the bench where he could have played HIS game. The reason he shot the ball so well is because he was shooting in rythm where he was feeling things, making decisions. Mike Brown asked Ramon for the most part to stand in the corner and not do much of anything other than spot up and wait for a shot to come to him ala Derek Fisher. Had he been put in a position to actually run P&R with drew and Pau or get out on the break for fastbreak opportunities everyone would be singing a different tune. The problem was Brown is a opiss poor coach who has no idea how to utiize his teams strengths but rather just try to have them play like his Cavs teams. 

He got his coaching job by exoplainging how he planned to run plenty of p&r while utilizing Paus passin g game and trying to put Kobe in scoring position in the mid post where he would have to do less ballhandling to get to the rim. He followed through with using Pau’s passing and doing nothing else. He had the team set around and either watch Kobe create at the top of the key like he was LBJ or they would set and pass around until they could ge3t Bynum a CLEAR post entry pass and then allow him to either score or have the D collapse on him. 

Brown is a horrible head coach who would have been better off being an assistant coach,. Hell, the man put Steve Blake on Gallo in the middle of a Lakers run thinking THAT was a good defensive matchup? WTF! Session was a terrific deal since the got rid of a late 1st rounder to acquire him and he gave the team a terrific option that more than likely would have been better off the bench given the design of the starting unit. 

But to say he was a bad deal that would have been smarter to save the pick and DRAFT someone who MAY end up being as good as Ramon(who is still pretty yooung himself) is pretty ridiculous. You know, I used to really think you were and awesome poster BothTeams, but the more things I read from you, the more I realize while you deo have some really good posts, just as often, you post as if you’re some kind of homer.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

“But to say he was a bad deal that would have been smarter to save the pick and DRAFT someone who MAY end up being as good as Ramon(who is still pretty yooung himself) is pretty ridiculous.”

The value of the pick is not just the age and talent, but also the fact that he will have a slotted salary. The Lakers dealt away two cost-controlled assets to bring in someone in Sessions who isn’t a starting caliber talent (nice backup who can start for a spell but not a true starter) and will cost at minimum $4.55 million next year (if he returns). It was a bad move in February, is still a bad move now, and will look horrible in June if someone like White or Nicholson is sitting there when they would have picked.

Think forward, they will negate these supposed savings if Sessions opt in (37 percent shooting, horrible defense, and bad decisions in important spots would tell me that he probably takes that guaranteed money and hope for better negotiating leverage a year from now) plus the money they will have to allocate to either re-sign or replace Hill, and the MLE that will need to be used to fill that third big void that was abandoned when Odom left (that they thought would be filled by Josh McRoberts). The team is going about an incredibly expensive and inefficient way of building a roster around Kobe, Pau, and Bynum.

As for your little rant about Mike Brown, I am not defending the job he did, but the poor shooting, bad defense, and untimely mistakes made by Sessions are the fault of Sessions.

[Author]

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