June 18, 2013

Trading Ramon Sessions was the right move

March 15, 2012 by 38 Comments

The Cavaliers today moved Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga to the Los Angeles Lakers for Luke Walton, Jason Kapono and LA’s first round draft pick.

We’ve discussed trading Sessions before, and while everyone agrees that Sessions is the ideal back-up point guard, the fact remains he likely would have opted out of his contract at the end of the year. He can start for a lot of teams, including the Lakers. It is hard to imagine Sessions sitting behind Kyrie for another season.

The Cavaliers will now have two first round picks, their own and wherever the Lakers finish. Currently, those two picks would be #8 and #25 just based on standings- obviously the lottery pick could end up being in the top 3. They also have two second round picks, their own and the Hornets’ second rounder. Those picks would be #33 and #38 right now.

That’s 4 picks in the top 38. And let’s be honest, the Cavs pick will likely improve by moving Sessions. The Cavaliers are a slightly weaker team on the court today than yesterday.

Normally, I wouldn’t be terribly excited about a pick in the 20′s. But this is shaping up to be a deep draft. Not only that, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Chris Grant didn’t try to package a couple of those picks to move up. If the Cavs really like a player at say #5, they have more pieces now to move in order to move up.

As for the other players involved in the deal, they really are irrelevant. Christian Eyenga is not going to be anything in this league. He wasn’t even starting in Canton. Yes, he is as athletic as anyone we’ve seen. Doesn’t matter. He’s just not anywhere close to being an NBA player.

Luke Walton isn’t going to do anything for the Cavs. You know it, I know it. Luke Walton knows it. Chris Grant knows it. He is under contract for another year. All that means is we have an expiring contract next year. The Cavs will be well under the cap next year. Paying Walton a little more than Eyenga to sit the bench just doesn’t matter. Jason Kapono has an expiring deal this year. He’ll see some court time just because the Cavs need another guard in the rotation.

The bottom line is that the Cavaliers were able to get another asset- a first round pick, for a player that wasn’t going to be back next year. I say well done Chris Grant. You are a trade deadline ninja.

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(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

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  • The_Real_Shamrock

    More picks the merrier and I like the idea of packaging to move up.  Nice to see the Cavaliers doing something that makes sense unlike the Cleveland Browns.

  • The_Real_Shamrock

    More picks the merrier and I like the idea of packaging to move up.  Nice to see the Cavaliers doing something that makes sense unlike the Cleveland Browns.

  • baclap

    Luke won’t see the floor at all? That might be a dumb question but we’re not exactly rolling in bigs.

  • BenRM

    I don’t know how people can be upset about this move. It’ll lead to a better pick from the Cavs; it turns Sessions (who was going to opt out) into something tangible; and it gives us material to potentially get a 2nd top 15 pick. 

  • http://twitter.com/007EthanLange Ethan Lange

    I don’t see why Arnett Moultrie and Dion Waiters might not be there around pick 25. I’d be happy with either of them to be completely honest.

  • Kildawg

    Another advantage is that the Cavs don’t play till Sunday hosting Atlanta. Now we hope that the Lakers back door in the playoffs (like the Bucks or Knicks stand to do) since the pick is top half protected.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ WFNYRick

    Walton is 6’8″. Not really a big.

  • mgbode

    ESPN reporting that Cavs have the right to swap Miami’s pick for Lakers in ’13, not the other way around?

    “As part of the deal, the Cavaliers also will have the right to swap Miami’s 2013 first-round pick, which they own, for the Lakers’ first-round selection.”

  • http://twitter.com/007EthanLange Ethan Lange

     Yeah thats also how I understood it.

  • http://www.zfcomics.com dgriff13

    agreed. Good move. Thankful for what Ramon put in, every night, for the Cavs, but lets continue the rebuild plan….

  • floydrubino

    Thank you Ramon for playing well enough to get us a 1st rounder. Best move Cavs have made in a long time outside of drafting Kyrie.

  • Mark

    The complaints I’ve read seem to be that the Cavs should have gotten more. I don’t get it. I’m not sure what more they could have gotten?

  • Harv 21

    Let’s see, a total 20-some more games of Sessions v. a number one pick in a good draft class. Hmmm . How is anyone questioning this? Must be woe-is-me Browns angst leaking from the other commentary. 

    Nice going, Chris Grant. You played a little deadline chicken with Kupchak and won. Now, Jamison for another second rounder and we’ll try to parlay one of those into a future contributor.

  • mgbode

    Fab Melo may jump and look how important he is to Syracuse (UNC-Ash up 34-30 @halftime)

  • swig

    How do they “back door in the playoffs” when they are the #3 seed?

  • Jack

    can’t we just cut/buyout antawn…let’s lose 21 of the next 25

  • saggy

    you want to know why this trade sucks?  it’s because we should have gotten the Dallas pick, not Houston.  you guys are happy to get something for nothing (sessions).  I look at it as a missed opportunity to get something MORE.

  • BrownsFanSF

    Couldn’t agree more.  What were people hoping we trade him for??  He’s a nice back-up PG but we aren’t talking about Ricky Rubio here.  I think both teams can walk away from this one happy

  • David

     he probably won’t see the floor because he is never healthy

  • mgbode

    Chris Grant is becoming legendary in his ability to pry away picks.  First he convinces the Clippers to give away an allstar (Irving lottery pick), now he convinces the Lakers to giveup a 1st rounder for a backup-PG and still gets a possible upgrade on our 1st rounder next year.

    I like it.

  • mgbode

    the Lakers used the Dallas pick to get Jordan Hill from Houston.  to compensate, they gave us the ability to swap our ’13 picks.  I’d say that’s fair and the Lakers are only 3.5 games up on Dallas.  If it takes awhile for all these new parts to gel, they could fall back a bit.

  • http://profiles.google.com/exander05 Alex Mathews

    Regardless of what you might think, for JUST a player of Sessions’ value, we would not have gotten the Dallas pick. The Lakers were holding off because they thought giving up their own first round pick this year was “too much”. We had to take back bad contracts in order to get this done.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ WFNYRick

     Agreed. We’re talking about having Sessions for another 20-25 games here. There is a limit to what he’s worth.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Scott @ WFNY

    They have the right to swap whichever of the picks are worse. Could be looking at an 8 to 10 pick improvement if Miami finishes in the top three and a Lakers slide a bit

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Scott @ WFNY

    The team has shown no indication of buying out Antawn Jamison. It’s looking like he’ll be here through the duration.

  • http://profiles.google.com/exander05 Alex Mathews

    Also, the Dallas pick is top 20 protected for this year. Which means if the season ended today, we would have received nothing.

  • mgbode

    or if Kobe actually sustains an injury that could sideline him.  like if he lost his leg (even then, I think he’d just put on a peg and go at it at this point)

  • Jack

    I know, I know. I was hoping the WFNY-posting space would prove something of a wishing well…

    Alas.

  • http://twitter.com/Pelderskelter Patrick Elder

    Agreed, this seems pretty obvious to me. AND because we didn’t take the Dallas pick most likely, we will most likely take the Lakers’ first-rounder next year, which with a little bit of luck could even be a lottery pick! Just think: Kobe finally slows down a bit, Bynum gets injured, BAM Lakers are out of the playoffs.

  • BrownsFanSF

    Agreed, hopefully this time next year we’ll be competing for a 6 or 7 seed with a starting line-up looking like

    Irving, Beal, Gee, TT (with offensive moves) and Andy

    (although depending on where we pick I wouldn’t mind younger Zeller and a late pick on Kentucky Lamb)

    And talking about how 4 of our 5 starters are under 25 and we still have 2 picks to fill holes.

  • Kildawg

    Didn’t know they were a division leader. My bad. Perhaps the other LA team sneaks that division and SA gives OKC a run for that division. Other teams out West could hit big strides too like GS with Bogut. All I know is that the Cavs are in line for a potential lottery pick and the Lakers for (easily) the longest playoffs in pro sports.

  • Steve

    He shouldn’t but sadly he probably will for the same reason Jamison is.

  • porkchopexpress

    I’m really liking his poker face too.  I’m still reserving judgement because Euro me thinks he got anxious and took TT over Valenciounes (sp), and I can’t help but think he is going to be a really great player.

  • mgbode

    Bogut is injured.

  • mgbode

    sounds like a good plan

  • architrance

    Agreed – I like this deal, but wasn’t it just a year or two ago when we all just assumed that we could just “buy” a late first round pick from a team like the Lakers? Why has the pricetag escalated so much!??

  • Jaker

    Fine with this. The goal was to get a first rounder, and we did that. I would have rather done a deal with ATL to get one of their guys instead of Kapono and Walton but that seemed far fetched. Well done Grant, well done

  • Roosevelt

    It’s hard to call a move that results in a late first rounder a “great” move, but it was definitely the right move. I would just point out that it will take more than “four picks in the top 40″ to be the next OKC. It needs to be more like, four picks in the top 5.