Kings sign Ramon Sessions

rainmaker

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#4
#4
Yeah, just saw this. So what's up, no confidence in Ray?

If there's little confidence in Ray, then it's good to have Collison/Sessions type depth at PG but again, this does nothing to solve our more concerning needs down low defensively.

Ray appears to have just lost his spot in the rotation.
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#6
#6
I'd imagine grocery shopping with PDA would be quite the ordeal when, rather than making a simple, well-balanced meal, the man buys the store's entire supply of cauliflower and brussell sprouts and nothing else.

The Kings depth chart going into training camp(pending PDA signing the next dude he finds with a pulse):
C: Cuz/Hollins/Sim
PF: JT/Evans/Landry/Moreland/Wear
SF: Rudy/D-Will/Omri/ Trey
SG: Ben/Stauskas/(I'd expect Sessions to see some time here in tandem with Collison as well)
PG:Collison/Sessions/McCallum/ Deonte Burton


Viewed in a vacuum, I actually like this signing as Sessions is a solid player that can project out to be a 6th/7th man on a good roster.

Despite our ridiculous number of PFs, I can see us going small at times with Cuz/Gay/Stauskas/Sessions/Collison as the front office attempts to copy what Team USA did this summer (and what PDA's Nuggets did in general)
 
John Galt

John Galt

Starter
#8
#8
I think it is great to get some solid backcourt depth added to this roster. We were hanging our hat on McCallum, McLemore and Stauskas too much... a lot of potential for a long disappointing year there if they all play right down the middle of their potential (if nobody excels). I honestly don't see a lot of reasons to put a ton of confidence in McCallum at this point - he may turn out to be a real NBA contributor but hasn't really proved it yet.

Now on to the PF mess... if he could somehow pull off the Josh Smith thing NOW... bam - we'd have a pretty damn good team.
 
S

sdballer

Starter
#13
#13
Pros: very quick, great at pick and roll, can get to the hoop, decent court vision

Cons: very poor defender, bad outside shooter

All at a good price. Not sure what this means for ray and we still have a big hole down low but a good signing.
 
ockingsfan

ockingsfan

Starter
#15
#15
Albatros said:
Amick says the FO like him as a combo... position-less basketball.

that will make for some interesting combinations in the backcourt.
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Ramon is a very good backup guard. I think he could be a very viable third guard for a playoff team.

He is a Point Guard and can play some shooting guard too. If one of Ben Mac or Stauskas can establish themselves as a viable starting shooting guard, I think a 3 guard rotation with Collison and Sessions with Stauskas or Ben Mac at SG would do okay.
 
MassachusettsKingsFan

MassachusettsKingsFan

All-Star
#16
#16
This is one of PDA's better moves. I do question the fit to a certain degree because I like Ray a lot. I wanted him to play, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen now.

From a pure talent per dollar perspective, Sessions for two years / 4 million is a good use of cap room. He is a pretty legit bench scorer, and our bench was terrible overall last season.

This is also clearly a win now type move. You don't bring in someone who will directly block one of your young players if you aren't trying to win as many games as possible. I wouldn't be shocked if a trade came down soon with Ray involved, either.
 
H

HighFlyingMonkey

Starter
#17
#17
Sessions had a bit of a resurgence last year playing in Milwaukee, averaging 16/5 on .58 TS% and even shooting adequately from deep (35.7% 3ptFG). He's an Isaiah-lite type player if he can sustain that. The question is, he's been a terrible shooter his entire career, so were those last 27 games an aberration?

Its a really good signing at the bi-annual exception's cost if it works out. It keeps us from relying on a second year second rounder for PG depth.

So here is the salary structure of the current team so far:

Rudy Gay: $19,317,326
DeMarcus Cousins: $14,746,000
Carl Landry: $6,500,000
Derrick Williams: $6,331,404
Jason Thompson: $6,037,500
Darren Collison: $4,797,664
Ben McLemore: $3,026,280
Nik Stauskas: $2,745,840
Ramon Sessions: $2,077,000
Reggie Evans: $1,768,653
Wayne Ellington**: $923,780
Ryan Hollins: $915,243
Omri Casspi*: $915,243
Ray McCallum: $816,482
Eric Moreland*: $507,336

Total: $71,425,751


*Unguaranteed but likely to make the roster
**Under the stretch provision, Ellington's remaining cap hit is paid over twice the number of years remaining on his contract, plus one. So we are forced to pay Ellington in three yearly increments.

So we stand right now $8,225,751 over the cap. We have $5,574,249 until we hit the luxury tax line, and we have $9,574,249 under the tax apron we are hard capped at for 2014/2015. We have 14 roster spots taken (assuming Moreland and Casspi make the team).
 
K

KingsCitizen

Starter
#22
#22
randymoss1881 said:
He has tunnel vison like IT we will hate him by February trust me.
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LOL! Did you watch Session from another universe? The guy can dish and was never a kind of I'll-score-all-the-points-myself guy.
He's a good pick up and a nice way for Ray to learn. The contract is 2 years which is the same time that Ray will be able to sign for bigger money if he really improves.
 
gunks

gunks

Hall of Famer
#25
#25
I can dig it. Last year our guard depth was awful. We had IT and...Nobody.

This year we have a decent balance of vets and youth. Neither Collison or Sessions are going to wow anybody, but they are solid. Hopefully at least one of Nik, Ray, or Ben breaks out.
 
Mr. S£im Citrus

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#26
#26
Big Cuz 15 said:
we're in win now mode. they need to convince rudy to stay so they're putting all the cards on the table.
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Except that we can't win now.

I think that we're going to be better than we were last year, but we didn't really get 'playoff' better. And, on top of that, the only team in the western conference that got significantly worse since last season didn't make the playoffs, either. Barring catastrophic injury, the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers and Rockets are all still locks. And the Trailblazers, Warriors and Grizzlies are all pretty firm on that second tier. I'm going to completely disregard the Jazz, lakers and Timberwolves, but that still leaves five teams fighting for one playoff spot.

Do I think that we're better than...
  • The Pelicans? No. As great as Cousins is, and as much more potential as I think he has, whether he is better than Davis or not, I still feel like the Pelicans, when healthy, have a better roster, top to bottom.
  • The Mavericks? Ehh... I'd say that, on paper, the Mavericks are better. But they're really old (relatively speaking, of course), and the thing about age in sports is that old and still effective can turn to old and busted real fast (coughgarnettcough). If they're able to still play at the level they played at in the playoffs, then they're better, but they're counting on a lot of guys whose best days are behind them to still have one left in the chamber.
  • The Suns? Could be. I still don't believe in their frontcourt, and my opinion of their backcourt hopefully does not require further comment. I think that they played way above their level last year, and I think that they'll come back a little bit. They're probably still a +.500 team, but I don't think they're duplicating forty-eight wins.
  • The Nuggets? Yes. I do feel like we've leapfrogged the Nuggets, but I don't think that we've necessarily eclipsed them. They actually played below their level a little last year, and I feel like they'll be back around forty wins again.

Ultimately, I think that we can make a ten-game improvement over last season, and not even sniff the playoffs. In fact, I think that's exactly how it's going to go down. Regarding the signing itself, it's not bad in the abstract, but the games aren't played in the abstract. In the concrete, we're bolstering our mid-level point guard rotation with another mid-level point guard.
 
L

Livinthedream

All-Star
#29
#29
I don't know if it's win now mode. This is just insurance against our young players not having a good year. We weren't covered last year for Ben's slow progress once we got rid of Thornton. This allows for Ray, Ben or Nik to struggle and not take the team down with them.
 
S

sdballer

Starter
#30
#30
Mr. S£im Citrus said:
Except that we can't win now.

I think that we're going to be better than we were last year, but we didn't really get 'playoff' better. And, on top of that, the only team in the western conference that got significantly worse since last season didn't make the playoffs, either. Barring catastrophic injury, the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers and Rockets are all still locks. And the Trailblazers, Warriors and Grizzlies are all pretty firm on that second tier. I'm going to completely disregard the Jazz, lakers and Timberwolves, but that still leaves five teams fighting for one playoff spot.

Do I think that we're better than...
  • The Pelicans? No. As great as Cousins is, and as much more potential as I think he has, whether he is better than Davis or not, I still feel like the Pelicans, when healthy, have a better roster, top to bottom.
  • The Mavericks? Ehh... I'd say that, on paper, the Mavericks are better. But they're really old (relatively speaking, of course), and the thing about age in sports is that old and still effective can turn to old and busted real fast (coughgarnettcough). If they're able to still play at the level they played at in the playoffs, then they're better, but they're counting on a lot of guys whose best days are behind them to still have one left in the chamber.
  • The Suns? Could be. I still don't believe in their frontcourt, and my opinion of their backcourt hopefully does not require further comment. I think that they played way above their level last year, and I think that they'll come back a little bit. They're probably still a +.500 team, but I don't think they're duplicating forty-eight wins.
  • The Nuggets? Yes. I do feel like we've leapfrogged the Nuggets, but I don't think that we've necessarily eclipsed them. They actually played below their level a little last year, and I feel like they'll be back around forty wins again.
Ultimately, I think that we can make a ten-game improvement over last season, and not even sniff the playoffs. In fact, I think that's exactly how it's going to go down. Regarding the signing itself, it's not bad in the abstract, but the games aren't played in the abstract. In the concrete, we're bolstering our mid-level point guard rotation with another mid-level point guard.
Click to expand...
Extremely well stated. I've been ok with most of the moves we've made this off-season but we still aren't making the playoffs with this roster and I haven't seen anything from PDA that suggests he knows how to take us to the next level. He's aggressive and knows how to find bargains which is great when filling in a playoff roster but not so great when those bargains make up much of your team.
 
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