Ramon Sessions a significant upgrade at point guard

By Mark Medina

March 15, 2012 12 AM PT

The Lakers may not have acquired Net guards Deron Williams before the trade deadline as they had hoped, but they still managed to significantly improve their backcourt.

The Lakers acquired Ramon Sessions from the Cleveland Cavaliers for a 2012 first-round pick. The Lakers also traded Luke Walton and backup shooting guard Jason Kapono for forward Christian Ayenga, who played in just six games and spent time in the Development League. The front office deserves kudos for addressing the team’s point guard needs without compromising its core roster of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. They also deserve praise for somehow dumping Walton’s remaining one-year, $6.1-million contract. Meanwhile, Sessions makes $4.2 million this season and has a player option next season worth $4.5 million.

Sessions has struggled some this season, He has averaged 10.5 points on 39.8% shooting in 24.5 minutes, a dropoff from the 13.3 points on 46.6% shooting in the 26.3 minutes he posted in the 2010-11 campaign. But being stacked behind rookie standout Kyrie Irving played a huge part in the statistical decline. It’s possible Sessions could post similar numbers with the Lakers, considering that Bryant, Gasol and Bynum combine for 63.4 of the Lakers’ 95.1 points they average per game. But Sessions’ numbers are still superior to what Derek Fisher (5.9 points, 38.3%) and Steve Blake (5.7 points, 37.5%) have provided this season.

Sessions also fits the Lakers’ needs in needing a quick point guard who can organize the offense, ensure balanced scoring and throw quality entry passes. According to Synergy Sports Technology, Sessions has handled 43.4% of his possessions on pick-and-roll sets. Having such a skill set would free up Bryant from handling the ball, which relieves both his energy output and the pain in the torn ligament in his right wrist. Sessions’ assist-to-turnover ratio stands at 2:1. That would reduce the Lakers’ tendency toward a stagnancy in their offense. Sessions also cares little about scoring. Not only will that require less of an adjustment for his teammates to make, it will also ensure a quick acclimation period.

The Lakers hardly had that luxury before.

The Lakers’ guards have averaged 12 points per game as a group. Fisher and Blake average about one shot combined in attempts at the rim. Fisher hardly had the skill set to organize the offense, while Blake’s on-court chemistry with Matt Barnes and Bynum did little to improve the bench’s combining for a league-worst 20.3 points per game. Meanwhile, the Lakers’ coaching staff has lacked the confidence in rookie Darius Morris to give him meaningful playing time.

Should the Lakers’ roster stand as-is, this would create a few issues for Mike Brown to iron out at point guard. Sessions deserves the starting spot, but that will require Fisher to accept a bench role. He did that in the 2003-04 season, and he said he took no offense to Brown keeping the point guard competition open at the beginning of training camp. Yet Fisher has also acknowledged in past seasons that he feels strongly about starting, and his experience and strong relationships with teammates have earned him plenty of locker-room clout.

Still, that problem hardly bodes as significant as the Lakers’ previous weakness at point guard. Sessions’ arrival surely addresses that.

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