The reign of Ramon Sessions in Hollywood is almost officially over. Just a few months after every Laker fan donned their hats, grabbed some pennants and threw on the old Nick Van Exel jersey out of pure joy, Sessions will be unceremoniously leaving one of the best situations in the NBA for possible the worst. Charlotte isn’t exactly a banishment – it’s still an NBA team and the dude is still going to be banking an NBA check – but it sure feels like it for the player who was annihilated by Russell Westbrook in the second round of this past season’s playoffs.
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports the Bobcats are finalizing a deal to sign Sessions. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer confirms this report, and says it’ll be official once Sessions, who is traveling, signs it. L.A. and Sessions never really began negotiations this summer after the point guard opted out of a deal that would’ve paid him $4.55 million next year. Then, the Lakers picked up Steve Nash, and virtually everyone in California showed their former “savior” point guard the door immediately. Reportedly, Sessions initially wanted to hunt for long-term security but is now, upon looking at the landscape, content for flexibility depending on the situation.
Apparently, D.J. Augustin has a number of suitors trying to pluck him away from the Bobcats. That list includes Indiana, who just dumped their backup point guard (Darren Collison) and look like a likely landing spot for the former Texas star. For his entire career, which spans four teams in five years, Sessions has looked for a starting job and was unable to find a steady one. Until L.A. Until he replaced Derek Fisher‘s rotting corpse. Until he started strong with the Lakers and averaged 12.7 points and 6.2 assists during 23 regular season games. Until… well, we’ll just say fans were screaming “We should’ve never gotten rid of Fisher!” in the playoffs.
Now, Sessions will battle for PT with Kemba Walker, a player no one is quite sure what to make of yet. But if we know Mike Dunlap like we think we do, we’re betting he at least TRIES to turn Walker into a starting-caliber lead guard on an uptempo team. That leaves Sessions in the same position he’s nearly always been in: stuck on a bad team, unable to wrestle away a guaranteed starting gig.
Is this a good move?
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