Sacramento Kings: Ramon Sessions A Wise Addition

Although many might argue that the Sacramento Kings roster doesn’t look too great on the whole, if there was one area where they most needed strengthening it was in their backcourt. Now, with the signing of veteran point guard Ramon Sessions they have done exactly that.

First reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Sessions has signed with the Kings on a two-year deal worth a total of $4.2 million, courtesy of the bi-annual exception.

Prior to the 28-year-old’s signing, the Kings were preparing to enter the season with a point guard rotation of new signing Darren Collison, second-year guard Ray McCallum, and potentially even the undrafted Deonte Burton. With concerns remaining over how even Collison will deal with running the team, it was vitally important that Sacramento found an experienced and versatile point guard option.

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That’s exactly what Sessions offers to the team too. The South Carolina native is about to enter his eighth season in the NBA, and with that, the Kings will be his sixth NBA team. In those previous seven seasons, Sessions has worked hard. With a career total of more than 5,000 points, in just less than 500 games, Sessions has been around the block.

That’ s a big positive for the Kings too, as adding someone with that extra bit of cunning from their experience in the league, is a welcome boost. Sessions isn’t some sort of elite two-way player, in fact his defense is generally not very good, but he does offer contributions across a variety of key areas during his time on the floor.

First and foremost, Sessions can score. He has a career average of 11.7 points per game in an average of 26.7 minutes a night. For a point guard, those numbers are very respectable, and when they are adjusted to show an average of 16.6 points per 36 minutes, it’s clear that we’re looking at a guy who is more than capable offensively.

The bulk of Sessions’ scoring output is a result of the work he does inside the paint. At 6″3′, that isn’t a result of constant post ups, but instead Sessions’ aggression and fearlessness’ in terms of driving to the rim. When he gets inside, although he’s not necessarily a guy who’s going to throw it down to finish, Sessions has a wide of range layups that he can use to finish plays.

Sessions can also make jump shots, although you definitely wouldn’t want to be relying on him to do so on a regular basis. Sessions has a career field goal percentage of 43.9 percent, and a 3-point equivalent of 31.1 percent. A closer look at Sessions’ 3-point history immediately highlights his biggest problem as inconsistency. Sessions has had his single season 3-point averages fluctuate anywhere between 20 to 44 percent.

Sessions isn’t all about scoring though, and he ticks many of the other boxes in terms of what a coach would want from their point guard. He has a career average of 4.7 assists a game, and on four occasions he has averaged more than five assists per game for a season. On top of that, Sessions is also a capable rebounder, chipping in with an average of three per game for the course of his career.

Sessions may not be an elite point guard, but he will contribute. The biggest mistake the Sacramento Kings made this summer could well prove to be allowing Isaiah Thomas to move elsewhere, yet that won’t be Sessions’ or Collison’s fault, even if the animosity of the fans falls their way.

What should be most important for Kings fans at the moment is, the acquisition of Sessions offers them depth they didn’t previously have at arguably the most important position on the floor, and that can only be a good thing.