Ramon Sessions is a great pickup

[ALL HAIL]

The draft picks (in the Sessions deal and Fisher deals) had to be sacraficed to save money. Plain and simple.

Kupchak overspent on Blake and overspent on Walton and had to make right with the payroll by jettisoning their contracts. Blake was unable ot be moved because of the extra year, so Fish was next in line.

I agree with Jet on many, many levels, but in order for Kupchak to make another move this summer he had to clear the deadweight. He can't step to Jerry Buss about signing someone this summer using the TPE with contracts like Walton and Blake and Fisher and World Peace around.

Kupchak had to trim the fat and the ONLY way to do that (shohrt of trading Bynum) was to package the fat (Walton, Blake, Fisher, and/or W.Peace) with draft picks.

But again, Jet is idealogically right in my book. You all know how much I look up to Jerry West and West would NEVER sell draft picks. He loved the idea of hand picking guys to be on your roster.

If your good at it, it is a fantastic way of strengthening your roster and saving money at the same time. Draft picks, to me, are very valuable, just not when your drafting guys like Cook, Vujacic, Walton, Rush, even George.

I don't know if I misunderstood you Deep, but to say that the Lakers have never relied on low draft picks is a bit misleading. I don't know who really RELIES on low draft picks, but the Lakers have over the years (especially with West) scored BIGTIME with low picks.

They actually parlayed a low draft pick into a player named Kobe Bean (Divac). They also got considerable mileage out of ELden Campbell (the forgotten Laker bigman). Nick Van Exel was a key figure in the transition between dynasties.

When done properly, draft picks are very valuable, especially when you understand, like the Lakers do, how to NURTURE young talent -- reference Kobe, Bynum, Van Exel, Eddie Jones.

None of these players would have been the same if they had've been drafted by other teams that did not know how to nurture their talents.

I agree with Jet about the value of picks, however, he's wrong in his assertion that the picks were too much in this situation.

I don't know how to say it any other way, so I'll just say it:

"The picks were the ONLY WAY for the Lakers to keep this thing moving."

They did the right thing (and that means a lot coming from a guy like me who criticizes Kupchak for breathing too hard),

[The Prodigy]

The draft picks (in the Sessions deal and Fisher deals) had to be sacraficed to save money. Plain and simple.

Kupchak overspent on Blake and overspent on Walton and had to make right with the payroll by jettisoning their contracts. Blake was unable ot be moved because of the extra year, so Fish was next in line.

I agree with Jet on many, many levels, but in order for Kupchak to make another move this summer he had to clear the deadweight. He can't step to Jerry Buss about signing someone this summer using the TPE with contracts like Walton and Blake and Fisher and World Peace around.

Kupchak had to trim the fat and the ONLY way to do that (shohrt of trading Bynum) was to package the fat (Walton, Blake, Fisher, and/or W.Peace) with draft picks.

But again, Jet is idealogically right in my book. You all know how much I look up to Jerry West and West would NEVER sell draft picks. He loved the idea of hand picking guys to be on your roster.

If your good at it, it is a fantastic way of strengthening your roster and saving money at the same time. Draft picks, to me, are very valuable, just not when your drafting guys like Cook, Vujacic, Walton, Rush, even George.

I don't know if I misunderstood you Deep, but to say that the Lakers have never relied on low draft picks is a bit misleading. I don't know who really RELIES on low draft picks, but the Lakers have over the years (especially with West) scored BIGTIME with low picks.

They actually parlayed a low draft pick into a player named Kobe Bean (Divac). They also got considerable mileage out of ELden Campbell (the forgotten Laker bigman). Nick Van Exel was a key figure in the transition between dynasties.

When done properly, draft picks are very valuable, especially when you understand, like the Lakers do, how to NURTURE young talent -- reference Kobe, Bynum, Van Exel, Eddie Jones.

None of these players would have been the same if they had've been drafted by other teams that did not know how to nurture their talents.

I agree with Jet about the value of picks, however, he's wrong in his assertion that the picks were too much in this situation.

I don't know how to say it any other way, so I'll just say it:

"The picks were the ONLY WAY for the Lakers to keep this thing moving."

They did the right thing (and that means a lot coming from a guy like me who criticizes Kupchak for breathing too hard),

I can see someone taking exception with trading the Dallas pick to basically dump Fisher's contract. I don't see how anyone could have an issue with the Sessions trade though. That was NOT a salary dump, even if we did end up saving money. We got a promising young point guard in addition to payroll relief for a pick that right now would be #25. You have to give something to ge something. How else were we supposed to upgrade our PG position? The picks were the ONLY trade assets we had.

Like it's been said plenty of times before, even if this draft is deep by all account, the odds of getting a point guard at #25 that would be able to produce like Sessions any time soon were very small. This is a team that needs to win now. The #25 pick is one that you absolutely sacrifice if it helps you win now. If it was a lottery pick that would be a different story.

[desertlakerfan]

Here's a solid breakdown of the last game from bballbreakdown on youtube, with a focus on the difference Sessions brings to the team over the first half of the video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q3D2XM44C4[/youtube]