COMMENTARY | There's no other way to put it -- the Los Angeles Lakers must re-sign Ramon Sessions.
It's not necessarily breaking news, but in the middle of the free-agent hoopla that began July 1, 2012 at midnight ET, the Lakers' highest priority is not a marquee, earth-shattering name.
Sessions was a nice upgrade over fan-favorite Derek Fisher, and this team has to continue to get better. At this point, it's a no-brainer that the Lakers need him back. Here are five reasons why:
Youth and speed are two attributes Sessions brings to the table.
Consequently, those two areas are where the Lakers lacked at the point guard position over the course of the last several seasons with Fisher. Nothing can ever take away Fisher's contributions to the team throughout five championship runs, but Sessions was able to give the team a spark offensively upon coming to Los Angeles.
He excelled at pushing the ball and made athletic plays that breathed life into what had become a stagnant offense. Are there better point guards out on the market this summer? Of course there are, but the Lakers can't afford them. Even as his price goes up, Sessions will be a bargain compared to the alternatives.
The Lakers don't have any better options other than bringing Sessions back.
The Lakers desperately need a point guard and would have to start over in building team chemistry should another floor general don the purple and gold. With the team built to win now, both physically and financially, continuity at that position is important given the constraints the team has to work under. Their proximity to the luxury tax threshold and salary cap greatly limit their ability to acquire an upgrade from Sessions. What's more important is they don't necessarily need anything better than what he brings -- more on that shortly.
The real focus needs to be on bolstering the abysmal bench.
The lack of depth in 2011-2012 cost the Lakers games and contributed to an early exit in the 2012 NBA Playoffs. Though the starters need some work in their own regard, the reserve unit is clearly lacking on both ends of the floor. They averaged a league-worst 21.3 points per game on an aging team that needs significant contributions from its bench players.
In 12 playoff games in 2012, the Lakers' bench was No. 15 out of 16 teams in scoring with an even worse scoring output of 16.6 points per game. How does securing Sessions help? Filling the biggest hole on the roster will free the team up to focus on adding some key subs.
The triangle is gone, and so are the days where the Lakers can get by without a solid point guard.
Training camp will be an important step in getting the roster, whatever it looks like, on the same page. A good point guard is a key component of Mike Brown's more traditional NBA-style offense. Sessions now has some experience in the system under his belt, and his teammates have begun to respond to him. Those things take time to establish -- time the Lakers don't have a lot of at this point.
That may not sound like a lot to be excited about for Lakers fans, but when considering that the team's primary competition -- franchises like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Clippers, and Memphis Grizzlies -- each have young cores in place that are used to playing with one another, continuity becomes even more crucial.
At age 26, Sessions is still getting better.
The Lakers desperately need young players with upside, and though it's not on a large scale, that's exactly what Sessions brings. He's still figuring out his way in the NBA, and has plenty of room to improve on his averages of 12.7 points, 6.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds on 47.9 percent shooting from the field and 48.6 percent shooting on 3-pointers.
The bottom line is that Sessions fits, and at a time of uncertainty, the Lakers need to lock up every sure thing they can get. Fortunately, the team doesn't need him to be an elite point guard.
As long as he's Ramon Sessions, they will be better for it.
Michael C. Jones is a Yahoo! Featured Contributor in Sports and covers the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA. He has written for Southern California's Press-Enterprise and Examiner.com. Follow him on Twitter for more NBA insight.
