Will Ramon Sessions Get Back to His Distributing Ways?

With Cavaliers guard Mo Williams on the brink of missing some action in the near future, the starting point guard duties will once again be handed to Ramon Sessions.  Already starting four games for the Wine and Gold, it will not be the minutes that Sessions will have to become acclimated to. 

Rather, it will be finding a consistent groove on the offensive end, focusing on execution and distribution.

Since coming to Cleveland with Ryan Hollins, Sessions has received a warm welcome.  Fans enjoy No. 3’s quickness and ability to go baseline to baseline in the blink of an eye.  Their first look at the new point guard came on a night where he provided 14 points and two steals in a citywide win over the Boston Celtics on opening night.

But since the late-October win, Sessions has been inconsistent at best, sandwiching a 21-point night against Sacramento and his most recent two games with nights of 2-of-9, 2-of-6 and 1-0f-6 respectively.  In the Cavaliers worst loss of the season, a 20-point drubbing at the hands of the Toronto Raptors, Sessions was 1-of-10 from the floor with four points and five turnovers.

Thus far through the 2010-11 season, Sessions is averaging a career-high 10 field goal attempts per game.  Of those 10 shots, seven of them are being taken from less than 10-feet away, usually via an isolation slash to the rim in which Sessions simply uses his quickness to get by a defender.  The only issue is that Sessions is currently averaging a career low 38.8  percent on these attempts.  Often times, he appears to be moving too quickly and cannot line up a good angle to the backboard, missing an average of two lay-ups per game.

Sessions is not a threat from long distance – he has not taken a three-point field goal yet this season – and his percentages between 10-23 feet are not any better (worse, actually, at 35 percent), providing defenses with a relatively one-dimensional player.

But where he can provide a spark, assuming that he will not be developing a long-range game during his fourth year in the NBA, is in his passing and facilitating an offense.  The Cavaliers brought Sessions into Cleveland as a quick guard that can push tempo, but also one that can get back to averaging north of five assists per game as he did during his first two seasons in Milwaukee.  Presently, he is averaging 3.5 assists per night, good enough for third on the team among the three point guards (Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson). In 2008, Sessions had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.63.  Thus far in 2010, he is playing at a level that is half of that, providing 1.56 assists for each turnover. 

Enter Byron Scott and assistant coach Paul Pressey, who will be tasked with reining in Sessions and coaching him into more of the point guard who they need for this Cavaliers team to succeed.  As Marla Ridenour of The ABJ mentions this morning, Pressey is credited with being the league’s first point forward with the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1980s. From his third season on, Pressey averaged no less than 6.6 assists per game for five consecutive seasons.

Presently, 74 percent of Sessions’ assists result in high-percentage conversions or three-point field goals.  If he can increase his volume, much like he did two and three seasons ago, his value to this Cavaliers team improves exponentially.

While it may not result in wins right out of the gate, how Scott handles the maturation of Sessions within this Cavaliers offense may ultimately be just as important as any other “move” this team makes between now and year’s end.  With Mo Williams’ contract not exactly conducive to a team that may be rebuilding, Sessions would be tasked with the role of full-time point guard in the event that Mo was moved. With Williams missing a month of time with his latest groin injury, the “leadership” role will now fall into Sessions’ lap as he gets another audition period with wich to work.

What he does with it remains to be seen.

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(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)