New York Knicks Should Sign Ramon Sessions
New York was a good team last season, they were just missing a quality point guard. Ramon Sessions would be the missing ingredient in getting back into the playoffs.
The New York Knicks improved last season from a less than impressive 17-win season to an improbable 32-win season, which is more wins than I think most would have predicted.
A lot of this was thanks to the fantastic chemistry between Carmelo Anthony and rookie sensation Kristaps Porzingis. They also had a better supporting cast, including Arron Afflalo and Robin Lopez. The missing ingredient was a quality point guard.
Jose Calderon played 28.1 minutes a night, averaging 7.6 points, 4.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. This return was just not good enough for a staring point in the NBA, considering his opposition was the likes of Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, John Wall, Kyrie Iring and Damian Lillard, just to name a few.
In a league where point guards are becoming increasingly valuable again, it is just not acceptable to have a point guard who is not outstanding at one particular skill. The other major issue with having Calderon as the starting point guard is that he is so poor on defense.
You are not going to beat any of the teams with the point guards mentioned above if you give them a free ride by playing Calderon on them.
Add a player like Ramon Sessions into the starting five and all of a sudden New York becomes a whole lot harder to beat.
Sessions played all 82 games last season, 77 of them coming in behind Wall as backup point guard. In those 82 games, Sessions averaged 9.9 points and 2.9 assists per game — not the best numbers by any means.
In the five games that he played as starting point guard when Wall was out at the end of the season, Sessions’ averages went up a long way. In that stretch, he averaged 17.7 points and 9.6 assists per game.
Sessions has played nine years in the league and has a total of 613 games experience. At the age of 30, he is in a good place to take over running a team.
“In a league where point guards are becoming increasing valuable again, it is just not acceptable to have a point guard who is not outstanding at one particular skill.”
I would not expect Sessions to come out and score 17-18 points per outing with New York however. Anthony is one of the all time leading scorers in NBA history and Porzingis is only going to get better the games that he plays.
With this sort of firepower available to him, Sessions would be able to run the offense efficiently, spacing the floor with his shooting and driving. Having Anthony and Porzingis to dish to will only help Sessions’ game.
There are better point guards in free agency this year. Rajon Rondo springs to mind. I just see Sessions being a better fit than Rondo for New York.
Rondo did not mesh well when he went to play for Dallas last year, derailing a pretty good season for the Mavericks where he openly disagreed with coach Rick Carlisle.
He has fit well into Sacramento but he is playing with the volatility of DeMarcus Cousins so he tends not to be as noticed.
More hoops habit: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time
With New York having no picks currently in the 2016 NBA Draft, they need to rely on free agency and trades to improve their squad. Sessions would be an upgrade that would have New York threatening the top four seeds in the East.