I looked at Sessions for TrueHoop over the weekend. The post includes a short testimonial from Knicks assistant, Dan D’Antoni, who coached Sessions in AAU ball:
The player movement procession has slowed, as teams wait to see where the big dominoes fall. Where Lamar Odom lands will probably have an impact on the rest of the free agent (or, in Carlos Boozer’s case, “available player”) pool. In turn, that will determine approximately how much money the spenders have left to fill out their rosters.
Ramon Sessions is waiting for your call.
(Gary Dineen/NBA via Getty Images)Think of a trendy restaurant. Those with reservations get their tables, while the walk-ins cram into the crowded bar area waiting for their names to be called.
But what if one of those walk-ins had the following résumé?
- Age: 23
- Position: Point Guard
- Height: 6-3
- 2008-09 PER: 17.65
- 2008-09 PER as Point Guard: 20.6
- 2007-08 PER: 16.48
- Assist Percentage Ranking (greater than 1500 minutes played): 11th
- 2-year Adjusted +/-: 4.60 (5th among point guards)
That’s what Bucks point guard Ramon Sessions brings to the table after two seasons in the NBA — more youth and greater efficiency than either Jason Kidd and Mike Bibby, who have already been seated. Rodney Stuckey was born 10 days after Sessions, yet has been anointed as a starter in Detroit with lesser or equal numbers across the board. Sessions has the size and ability to guard both ones and twos, and has demonstrated the capacity to do so.
There are some red flags on Sessions’ stat sheet. He isn’t yet an efficient outside shooter. He’s drained a grand total of nine 3-pointers in his two seasons in the league, which has kept his effective FG percentage down at just below 45 percent — not so good for a guard. But there’s a silver lining here, too. Sessions gets to the line 7.8 times per 36 minutes. Among point guards, only Devin Harris, Chris Paul, and Chauncey Billups top Sessions in this category. This brings his true shooting percentage above 52 percent.
Sessions was drafted No. 56 overall by Milwaukee in 2007-08. After a stint during his rookie season in the D-League, he was called up to the big club and impressed. Milwaukee extended him a qualifying offer of a little more than $1 million. Given the financial state of the Bucks franchise and their selection of Brandon Jennings in last month’s draft, it’s likely that they’d decline to match a sizable offer for Sessions by another team.
I asked several different basketball people here in Las Vegas who could tell me about Sessions’ game, the unanimous response was, “Dan D’Antoni is your man.”
D’Antoni, a Knicks assistant, coached Sessions in AAU ball in South Carolina and is one of Sessions’ boosters. When we approached D’Antoni in the stands at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas and asked tell us more about Sessions, he enthusiastically agreed. D’Antoni is quite possibly the nicest guy in Clark County right now. When we walked down the bleachers to the corner of the gym, the drone of the PA was loud, and D’Antoni led me to the stairwell, where he could offer his testimony in relative quiet.
48 Responses
Get over Ramon Sessions, last year was probably “the year” for him the guy was playing on a team with practically no other quality guards he will probably never average more than 10pts and 5ast ever again especially not if he comes to the Clips and plays off the bench this is just another good player having a good year and since hes young everyone thinks this is a superstar in the making.
John D Reply:
July 20th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
So, let’s just build off of your assessment that Sessions “is just another good player”. Why wouldn’t the Clips – current non-contenders with young talent in Griffin, Gordon, Jordan, and Thornton – want to ink a “good” young PG?
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
this guy is sick, he is the pure point guard we could use off the bench. great handle of the game and can find the open man with regularity. he and gordon would make a very good backcourt of the future
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Clippers have 14 people now.
ghost_ride Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:12 am
You counting Madsen?
FireDunleavy .com Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Yeah, they’ll probably get rid of him but who else is gone? And if they sign sessions or AI, that’s another person they need to get rid of.
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I am sorry I have 13
23 Marcus Camby C 35 6-11 235 Massachusetts $9,150,000
25 Mardy Collins PG 24 6-6 220 Temple $1,867,742
1 Baron Davis PG 30 6-3 215 UCLA $12,100,000
31 Ricky Davis SF 29 6-7 195 Iowa $2,400,000
10 Eric Gordon SG 20 6-3 222 Indiana $2,819,880
32 Blake Griffin PF 20 6-10 251 Oklahoma $4,983,480
9 DeAndre Jordan C 20 6-11 250 Texas A&M $736,420
35 Chris Kaman C 27 7-0 265 Central Michigan $10,400,000
4 Mike Taylor PG 23 6-2 165 Iowa State $736,420
12 Al Thornton SF 25 6-8 220 Florida State $1,900,200
FireDunleavy .com Reply:
July 20th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
You’re missing Novak
andrew Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 1:08 am
hes still an UFA right ?
Chris. Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 6:26 am
RFA
JM Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 6:27 am
Novak = RFA
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
If you guys want to see a funny clip go on YOUTUBE and look up “WHAT DOES SHAQ THINK OF CHRIS KAMAN?’ I know it off subject but Marco’s reaction is hilarious…and watch Kaman’s response at the very end. Priceless!
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
RAMON IS BEAST!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a Nevada Native (Reno Nevada Native, in Fact) and I have been following his career since he wuz drafted. He will be a fixture in da NBA for years GO RAMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAKE US NEVADANS PROUD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Milwaukee would match any offer the Clips could have offered Ramon. Bassy is a better option that Taylor (who still needs time to figure things out). We still need a wing player since R.Davis worked out so well.
andrew Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 1:09 am
i dont think so. They got rid of Richard Jefferson for nothing and they let Charlie V walk, and they just drafted Jennings.
bongstradamus Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Jennings looks like he’s going to be legit too. In 5 years we’ll be wondering how he didnt get taken in the first 4 picks.
Posted on July 20th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
As of right now the Clips look something like this
C-Kaman(top 5 centers if healthy)
PF-Griffin(probably will break top 10 PF’s list)
SF-Thornton(inconsistent but still top 15)
SG-Gordon(possibly in top 10 list at SG)
PG-Davis(despite off year ended 7th in APG and averaged 15ppg) top 10 PG)
OUR BENCH
M. Camby will play about 25 MPG and probably average 8 pts and 10rpg with 2bpg will be crucial against Tim Duncans, KG’S, Gasols etc.
D. Jordan solid player will have some great games and some bad probably still about a year away from being a consistent player.
R. Davis If healthy will help spread the floor always a threat to drop 15 pts in no time might be DIFFERENCE MAKER ON THE TEAM since if he has a bad year he takes a lot of our depth away.
M. Collins- Thinks hes a PG dunleavy sees him as a defensive stopper in the future frankly I think the guy is best at playing in a half court offense as the PG but we might not have a good enough half court game to use him much.
S. Telfair not a good shooter but finds ways to score if no further upgrade to team will see a whole lot of minutes as he is the best fit we have so far at the back up PG.
M. Taylor probably will play limited minutes as an instant offense kind of guy might fall out of favor though since Dunleavy will probably have a short leash if the team struggles and Taylor is very turnover prone which would merit limited mins.
C. Smith- Quality back up at 3-4 will see mins. if Jordan or R. Davis struggle however undersized and on some nights will be a defensive liability and is foul prone.
This is really only an 11 man team im assuming Madsen gets released since we have no need for him and I havent heard anything from Steve Novak but if you do add Novak to the team we have a very solid team probably good enough to make top 6 possibly 5 in Western Conference in my opinion bringing in Iverson might make this team have to many willing shot takers and not enough shots bringing in Sessions might create chemistry issues as a log jam at the PG would follow and Davis will probably play 30+mins leaving 18 mpg to be shared between Sessions, Telfair, Collins and Taylor and none of these guys has real size to play well at the 2 guard.
IF ANYTHING THE CLIPS NEED TO RESIGN NOVAK AND LOOK FORA A BACKUP TWO GUARD/SF
bootstrenf Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 8:43 am
i strongly disagree with thornton being a top 15 SF…..everything else is reasonable, but there are alot more than 15 SF’s in this league that i would rather have over thornton…
John Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:02 am
I agree. Top 15 scoring SFs easily, but in pretty much every other category he drops right off the list. The Kaman “Top 5 if Healthy” is a big if as well.
in another note…It’s been about as exciting an offseason as there has been since I’ve been following this team…the only real meaning I can pull out of yesterday’s trade is that it seems the clippers are not done building this team yet.
ClippsUK Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:54 am
I feel similar although I think they will only possibly make one more move or two tops (if they get a good trade offer).
TNT57 Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:38 am
This all sounds fine until half these guys go down with injury. I think the Clips need a new trainer and a new therapy guy.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 1:24 am
By acquiring 3 players from TWolves, Clippers have made their intentions clear & simple. They want to trade Baron & Kaman. Imagine what we can fetch for those two Clipper outcasts.
Things are getting better. They have several doors & windows to make real impact trades. They want to keep & build around: Gordon, Blake and DeAndre.
And they need two more quality players. Except Craig Smith & Mardy Collins,
No one is really 100% sure about remaining with this team. Thornton has one more season.
If they succeed in trading Baron & Kaman, next window of opportunity will open involving Camby.
John Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:26 am
I see where you’re coming from Clipsamba, acquiring Bassy while still talking to Sessions does hint that they would look to move Baron…
With Baron’s contract and the way he played last season, however, he will be very difficult to move.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 9:21 am
If we move Randolph, we can move Baron. There’s always some sucker who thinks they can turn the clock back on a player like Davis. I hear Kings might be interested in moving Kevin Martin. How about Baron, Smith and Telfair for Martin? I have no idea if this works money wise, but I’d like to see it.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 10:43 am
Does Martin still play for Kings?
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 10:43 am
Looks like the Clips are making a hard play for Sessions. This article makes it sound like the Bucks would be pretty unwilling to match.
http://my.journaltimes.com/post/woelfel-world-of-sports/clippers_knicks_in_hot_pursuit_of_sessions.html
The plot thickens….
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 10:46 am
It looks like the Clips are gearing up a package to trade for a small forward, especially since they have that trade exception.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 10:59 am
what does anyone think about these trades?
mickael pietrus for mardy collins and ricky davis
luke walton for mardy collins and ricky davis
mike taylor and mardy collins for bayless
mardy collins and ricky daivs for thabo sephalosha
marcus camby, mardy collins, and mike taylor for caron butler and javaris crittenton?
Asin Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:30 am
I would LOVE to have Caron Butler.
bongstradamus Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Washington is not going to give up Butler for a bag of trash. Sounds like a great trade, just totally impossible from a reality perspective.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 11:25 am
Matt Barnes to Orlando.
Sean May to Sacramento.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 11:27 am
KA:
Sorry for the crosspost but I’m not posting on ESPN for anything.
http://dberri.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/the-reasons-to-sign-iverson/
The case against Iverson selling tickets.
Clipper Derrick Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I agree with the general gist of the post. If you want to sell more tickets, you’ve got to win more games. Period … and I don’t think you get a guarantee of “wins” with AI.
Jax Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I agree with the point that more wins sells more tickets. But I’m not a big WIN fan. For example, they argue that Philly got better after AI left. Did they? If so, why was that? Different management? Better players signed?
They also argue that Denver was better after he left. Of course, they fail to point out that both Kenyon Martin and Nene were hurt. And he had a high WIN score his second year in Denver so maybe the problem was elsewhere.
In any event, WIN is silly because it tries to evaluate players in a vacumn despite the fact that their “Win” number is dependent on the players around them to some degree.
I also think their season ticket arguments are flawed, but no need to get into that here.
Having said that, I agree with the general premise at the end of the article that AI, although old, might be able to provide some help off the bench, and thus more wins, and more ticket sales. Of course, I suspect that AI would be a draw here, particularly if the team is winning.
FireDunleavy .com Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 am
Agree with all those points, but do you think AI would run Dunleavy’s set plays?
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I’m not totally sold on Bassy, if only because there’s no way he can play back-up SG. He also can’t be packaged with any other player in a deal, but does that include the TPE we have? If not, is it possible to package Bassy and part of the 7 million TPE to send to MIL in a S&T? They get a decent play-maker on the cheap as well as salary cap relief. We then have a guard corp of Baron, EJ, and Sessions. Sounds sweet to me.
Knicks can’t do anything beyond their MLE, and OKC already has Livingston and Westbrook so they won’t be too crazy trying to outbid us. Is this possible?
Clipper Speakeasy Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 5:01 pm
The way I understand it, the TPE can’t be combined with a player. The TPE can be used in parts though. So, the Clips can’t combine Bassy and a portion of the TPE to get Sessions, but the Clips could use a big chunk of the TPE to get Sessions and keep the remainder. See the answers to #69 and #72 here: http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q68
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 3:31 pm
heres’s some wishful thinking=
#1-the clippers will get either Ramon sessions or marvin williams this offseason for a good price.
#2- during the season, deandre would show that he could play center consistently well and the clippers would trade kaman, either for some expiring contracts or a SF(ex. prince, battier) at the trade deadline
#3- if # 1 didn’t happen, but #2 did, hopefully giving us more cap room, we would then go after lebron james, or more realistically joe johnson, then look at some other free agents (Kelenna Azubuike(P),Randy foye) in the summer of 2010
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 7:25 pm
With all the new players apparently coming on in already (Griffin, Telfair, Smith, Madsen), I don’t want the Clippers to give Sessions or anyone available anything longer than a 1 year contract. I don’t think the Clippers will be giant players in the 2010 free agent market, but I’d love to see what the team we now has before we commit to anybody or any one position without fixing our biggest holes which we will see clearly if we just let this group play. No Sessions and no Iverson for me, sorry, Sign back Novak for 1 year and give that Nik summer league guy a 1 year partially guaranteed contract and wee what we have.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Even major Clipper-Hater Adande’s starting to give G-Force props..
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=griffin-090720
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 8:14 pm
reccent iverson interview-
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2009/07/21/nba_20090721_iverson.nba/
Interesting comments=
at one point in response to his critics, he says he has a greater chip on his shoulder and it :makers him want to play that much more: (Whats that supposed to mean): and also he says its like being a rookie again, having to prove himself all over again( from what i heard, it seems like he’s up for the challenge) and lastly, he wants to be on a team that wants him(every clipper but sterling doesn’t seem to want him)
Chris. Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
if any team wanted Iverson as he says, he’d have signer by now because he’s cheap. Nobody wants him. If the Clippers where gonna go for him, wouldn’t they have traded Q Rich for a SF rather than an undersized PF (who doesn’t play SF cause he has no outside shot) and a PG? Oy, somebody other than Clips please sign Iverson and Sessions so we can stop thinking about anything other than what we have which looks really good.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
gotta figure ramon’s gonna be a knick with the d’antoni connection and the chance to be in nyc and dishing to lebron down the road.
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 at 1:16 am
Why don’t we trade Novak for Lebron. The talent and the money are both even. Its the logical move for the Cavs.
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Dunleavy is going hard after Sessions for one reason, I think. Because he doesn’t trust Baron and he wants to go into next season with a plan B that is strong enough to be a plan A if Baron gets hurt or is once again “uninspired.” He doesn’t want to be held up again by Baron’s moods.
And this team is very, very thin in the back court. We have Gordon, who should be very solid and Baron, who may or may not be interested in playing hard and not much else other than a marginal Telfair. We either need to add two solid players or one (Sessions) who is starter quality…
And Sessions is good because while he’s on the court, Baron can slide over to the 2 and guard slower guys when Gordon is getting a rest.
bongstradamus Reply:
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:07 am
Thats why i keep saying Carney. At 6’6″ he can play both SG/SF spots, is young, has a decent shot and defends. He’s the perfect mix of being affordable, skilled and having potential.
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
they’re trying to sign another PG? from what i hear he’s better than telfair but we already have 3 point guards
Posted on July 23rd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Art Carney is available? Shit. If we can lock down Joyce Randolph and Audrey Meadows maybe, just maybe, the ghost of Jackie Gleason rises from the grave and we’re on our way. It makes as much sense as some of these other suggestions.
Posted on July 25th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
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