Jam Sessions - the Ramon Sessions Thread

[Liver_Pooty]

Lol. The forum is alot funnier when we suck. That cat pic on the computer is hilarious.

[Elden Payton]

We certainly have some crackers, we love our team and having a laugh at our and their expense surely keeps us sane.

[Eoghan]

That cat looks way too happy to be a member of the Bobcat's organization.

[HornetJail]

Rick Bonnell @rick_bonnell about 2 hours ago

Based on Dunlap's comments when they released Cory Higgins, he believes Reggie Williams can play some point in a pinch.

Read more: http://hoopshype.com/twitter/tag/charlo ... z2MuZ15U00

This was definitely necessary to facilitate the tank. D-League hunting time!

sarcasm?

This whole season has been fishy this year. We apparently aren't remotely afraid of tanking. I don't know what to believe out of this franchise anymore.

[Elden Payton]

Why does a thirteen win team tank with 20 games to go...WTF? We're in last place..like dead last

[JMAC3]

Honestly anyone would excite me other than Higgins. Hopefully we do go and sign somebody and not just let BG and Reggie handle the duties.

Selby or Machado would be good.

[BobsBuddy]

This is a blow to an already tanking team. Ramon gave us leadership and hard work ethic. He's a true NBA Pro. Bobcats management may decide to keep him out rest of season. This would be a good chance for us to do some 10 day contracts from D league on point guards. Chris Wright is the first that comes to mind or wait 10 days and if Atlanta releases Shelvin Mack try him.

[vorbis]

this will be merged with the ramon sessions thread, where this is already being discussed.

[catch20two]

[fatlever]

bobsbuddy, i think you hold the board record for having the most threads merged.

[SWedd523]

bobsbuddy, i think you hold the board record for having the most threads merged.

and usage of smileys

[James Gatz]

bobsbuddy, i think you hold the board record for having the most threads merged.

and usage of smileys

and "unorthodox" trade ideas.

[Elden Payton]

This whole thread should be HOFed.

[mrknowitall215]

Season Report Card: Ramon Sessions

Grade: B-

17.80 PER vs 15.00 PER Against; Net +2.8

Strengths: Getting to the rim in transition and in the half court is Sessions’ specialty — there are few players in the league who I’ve seen blitz the rim on a dead sprint like Sessions does. It ends in a lot of trips to the foul line — he was 11th in the league in FTA/game at 5.7. At 14.4 PPG, 33.2% of Sessions points throughout the season came from the foul line, so it’s clear how much he depended on getting whistles from night-to-night. He’s great at elevating and drawing contact towards the rim — At 6’3, Ramon can finish at the rim much more effectively than many point guards and he understands that, because 50.1% of Sessions FGA came from 5-feet or less this season. Surprisingly (or not) enough, he shot only 48.1% from this distance — that’s due to the fact the he’s worried as much about drawing contact and getting to the line as he is at actually making the shot. Getting to the foul line is simply in Sessions offensive DNA, and he’s good at it.

As fast as Kemba is in transition, Sessions is just as effective because of the way that he attacks the rim in straight line sprint. Ramon isn’t looking to create for others in transition very much, but he sprints at the rim like it’s home base and it makes it extremely difficult for defenders to make him change directions/cross his path.

Weaknesses: For starters, Sessions isn’t a good defender and doesn’t make it much of a priority. Although, his numbers would suggest that he’s not awful — Sessions allowed his opponents to average a PER of 15.00, which is exactly the league average. He’s capable of using his length against smaller guards and being difficult to shoot over, but he struggles to stay in front of smaller, quicker guards. The team and Sessions both benefit defensively when he’s in the game as a SG, therefore guarding other SG’s — with Ramon guarding PG’s, the team had a defensive rating of 107.9, but when he was defending SG’s, the number was drastically better at 103.1 (Per 82games.com). This is further evidence that he doesn’t have good lateral quickness at all, but can be a competent enough defender to force players near the same athletic ability as him into tough shots.

As good as Sessions is at getting to the foul line, he is a very one-dimensional player offensive and struggles to make adjustments. Before the all-star break, he was averaging 5.8 FTA/game and converting 85.5% of those. Post all-star break, teams began to adjust their defenses to keeping him away from the rim and Sessions only averaged 4.8 FTA/game — this clearly affected his overall offensive mindset as he converted just 72.1% of his FT’s and his 3FG% dropped to 26.7%.

That brings us to Sessions next weakness — outside shooting. He was 30.8% from 3-point range this season + isn’t comfortable taking the shot. The right and left foul line extended areas were the only mediocre areas for Sessions and his 3-point shooting — left foul line extended area: 10-25 (40%). Right foul line extended area: 12-36 (33.3%).

Reasons for Optimism: Well, he’ll be in Charlotte next season for the last year of his 2-year, $10mil deal — a great contract for the Bobcats to have during this rebuilding stretch. The likelihood of Sessions busting his tail this off-season and giving maximum effort on the court next season is very high due to the fact that this is a contract year coming up for him and at 27 years old he’s still in the category where a gaggle of teams would bid to overpay him — that’s assuming he has an impressive ’13-’14 season.

Dunlap reverted to Kemba/Sessions on the floor at the same time tons before Sessions was injured because they relied so much on the two for offense. We’ll have to see what happens with Hendo this summer, but it can be presumed that Sessions will have tons of pressure to score next season again, and will likely have to establish himself as more of a SG to find more time on the floor in Charlotte.

In short, at Sessions age and approaching a contract year, this could very well be the meat of his prime coming next season write the story on what his next step in the NBA will be.

Reasons for Pessimism: The shooting %, rebounding and assist numbers all dropped this season for Sessions. 11.1 FGA/game was a career high for him, but he’s been 44.1% from the field for his career and last season was quite a drop to 40.8%. It’s not something to be overly concerned about, because he did average a career high in PPG at 14.4 — that being said, there certainly wasn’t a direct correlation in how many points Sessions was scoring this season and how efficient he was doing it.

If the Bobcats re-sign Henderson, then that’s clearly stating that he’s the SG for the forseeable future in Charlotte — that demotes Sessions to strictly being the backup PG, presumably. If the team doesn’t bring Hendo back, which I believe will be the case, then I believe that Sessions will be used in many different fashions next season. He’s a 6’3 combo guard type of player that can wear many different masks on the floor, and will be asked to do that regardless of the personnel next season.

http://queencityhoops.com/blog/2013/05/ ... -sessions/

[catch20two]

I agreed with the constructive criticism and subtle applause of Sessions but I thought he deserved a better grade than a "B-". He was most certainly a top 5 backup PG this year right behind maybe Jarrett Jack, Andre Miller, then you can make a case for Nate Robinson and Eric Bledsoe off the top of my head.

[KembaWalker]

I liked what Sessions did but man I'm so sick of the 2 pg offense. If we draft a SG Sessions is going to have to be moved

[catch20two]

I liked what Sessions did but man I'm so sick of the 2 pg offense. If we draft a SG Sessions is going to have to be moved

The 2 PG offense is becoming a trend around the league due to the success of having multiple ball handlers on the floor at the same time to execute the offense from any angle on the floor regardless of the defense's focus. The Heat, Thunder, Knicks, Clippers, Nuggets, Rockets, and Spurs are the most efficient offenses in the league in that order, and all of them usually keep multiple ball handlers on the floor at the same time. Our offense got a little better towards the end of the season when Hendo started taking it upon himself to call his own pick-and-roll plays when defenses were trying to keep the ball out of Kemba's hands.

I agree with you though that if we draft a SG that Sessions should be moved. Either that or we'll have to let Hendo walk in free agency. Otherwise our backcourt would become too crowded and somebody would get the short end of the stick that won't allow them to be productive with a lack of consistent minutes.

[KembaWalker]

I'm all about having multiple ballhandlers and smart passers on the floor. Just tired of hampering our PGs development by making them become off ball players. We drafted a PG high in Felton then tried to make him play with Knight, then Augustin with Felton, now Walker with Augustin/Sessions. I just feel like it negatively impacts their development having them stand around off the ball for 15-20 min a game when they could be running it. I just don't get the point of drafting lottery guys and developing them at positions that don't fit them. We also did it with Okafor playing PF and Morrison playing SG.

[catch20two]

Great point. It seems like a never ending cycle of us mishandling the development of our draft picks. Kemba turned out fine last year but hopefully the new coach don't allow Sessions to take the offense out of his hands as much. It's the 3 guard offense that Dunlap ran with too often during crunch time that bothered me.

[HornetJail]

Sessions plays off-ball more than Kemba does when they're on the floor together anyway. I think that's helped Kemba more than it's hurt him. The Felton/Knight, Felton/Augustin, and even Augustin/Walker combos were destined to fail, because playing two guys who are 6'0 at best doesn't work, and that's not getting into the playing styles of those combos- point is that those were absolutely destined to fail. The reason I like Kemba/Sessions as a combo is that both of them are all about attacking. Both get to the rim a lot, both can play on and off the ball, and both can hit jumpers. It's a well-rounded duo that can score in a variety of ways. A lot better than our other combos that were only good at consistently bricking jumpers.