Cavs take round one in Ramon Sessions trade
2012-05-22With the Lakers 2nd round playoff loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday, Round 1 of the Ramon Sessions trade is in the books. And Cleveland’s winning. In 12 playoff games, Ramon posted an 8.5 PER and was worth negative win shares. Meanwhile, the Cavs plummeted to the third best lottery odds.
Despite the Cavs having the trade up-against-the-ropes, it’s still too early to predict a knockout. Still to come:
Round 2: Does Cleveland land a rotation player at #24 in this year’s draft?
Round 3: Does Ramon pick up his player option for 2012 – 2013? If not, does he re-sign with the Lakers and for how much? (Despite the imagery of “winning” the trade based on Ramon’s non-success, Cavs: the Blog wishes him the best for the remainder of his career.)
Round 4: Can the Cavs package Luke Walton’s expiring contract at the trade deadline for something worthwhile? Or do they just pay Walton $6.1 million for “veteran leadership”?
Round 5: How does LAL finish next year? Can Cleveland land a valuable piece with LA’s 2013 first rounder?
Alot of blows still to be exchanged, but so far, so good for Chris Grant and company.
I’ve been busy, and missed this. That being said, It’s still WAY too early to say that we won this trade suddenly. Like I’ve said all along, the reason I disliked it was I think, when weighing the amount of money we took on, it feels like we could’ve bought a late 2nd rounder for less. Furthermore, Ramon definitely played half-decently for the Lakers during the regular season, so he certainly hasn’t been a complete bust for them. That being said, if we ultimately do win this trade, I’ll be more than happy to admit I was wrong, and celebrate… Read more »
I can’t see the Lakers making a whole lot of noise next year. They’re old and have virtually no financial flexibility. Their one shot at a decent young player is now our 1st round pick. I’m guessing they trade Pau for someone younger and cheaper, even though the talent won’t be on the same level. Amnesty Artest or Blake and those two moves should clear out enough cap space to make a few signings in free agency and buy an early 2nd round pick. What really kills them, though, is Kobe’s contract. He takes up half of the team’s cap… Read more »
Actually, I think he will decline the option. He didn’t play well in the playoffs, but he did during the season. Besides that, he’s got the Lakers over a barrel. They won’t have the cap space or draft picks to bring in another pg. Also, they will have a difficult time making a trade of Bynum or Gasol. Given the Lakers age, they don’t want to wait to make another run at a title. Given all that, I think he can get an increase in pay.
where is mallory defending this trade like he was when it happened?
also – if sessions idiotically does decline his option, theres always the possibility of the cavs making him an offer for $2-3m as a backup…which is what he is continuing to prove he is.
win win either way
Yeah…I totally called this when the Session trade happen as a big plus that many naysayers of the trade were overlooking. I never expected the Lakers to go deep in these playoffs and knew that meant they would have peaked with two years exiting in a row. They will almost certainly need to rebuild/retool by moving at least 1 of their big 3, resulting in it likely being tough for them to even make the playoffs next year.
What’s certain is that John Hollinger’s secure grasp of pre-calculus makes him more capable of analyzing basketball trades.
Hahaha, Excl, that’s awesome
Ah okay. I had read from two different sources that it was the Lakers that had the rights to the swap. Probably just lazy journalism and re-quoting. Thanks for the clarification.
So, we are rooting for Miami to finish 11th, Sacramento to finish 14th, LAL to finish 15th, and the Cavs to finish 30th. Got it.
Excl,
Yes…that would be perfect.
Thanks for clarifying, Kevin. I wasn’t aware of the lottery protection. Also, it pains me to think that I’m rooting for the Lakers to make the playoffs.
For those interested, Sam Amick of SI release his draft class assessment.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/sam_amick/05/17/draft.risk.reward/index.html
Personally, I find him and Zack Lowe to be quite knowledgeable about the NBA.
Excl you have it backwards, the Cavs have the right to swap their 2013 1st round Miami pick with the Lakers pick.
Pete and Excl, See below for how realgm has it summarized. My own summary: Assuming the Lakers are: 1. Not in the lottery 2. Better than Cleveland and Sacremento 3. Worse than Miami Then Cleveland swaps the Miami pick for the Lakers pick. Ideally, this moves Cleveland up in the draft from 29th-ish to 20th-ish. The Lakers pick at 29th (ish). And Excl, You are correct that a team can’t go two years in a row without a first round pick. That is why LA ends up with Miami’s 1st round pick in this scenario. From Real GM: 2013 first… Read more »
From what I’ve read, the Lakers have the rights to swap their 2013 first rounder with the Miami Heat’s 2013 first round pick, since we have the rights to that. We don’t have any other first round pick from what I can tell.
Wait, since when did we get the Lakers 2013 first round pick too? From what I know, you can’t even trade consecutive first round picks. So it should just be the pick we get this year.
@ Kevin:
I was under the impression that only the 2012 pick was lottery-protected. I thought that if the Lakers wound up in the lottery in 2013 we could still take it.
Richard and Hot Sauce, I always like the trade, too. At the time, some people thought the Lakers ripped the Cavs off, and I, like most Cavs fans, disagreed. I just wanted to follow up on the outcome of the trade now that some time has passed. Now, we just need to wait and make sure that Ryan Hollins doesn’t win NBA Finals MVP with the Celtics… Richard, I agree that Round 3 only matters as it applies to the Lakers not “losing” the trade, which really has little to do with Cleveland (obviously there can be win-win trades). Also,… Read more »
This trade has always looked good from where I sit. Razor Ramon was a nice backup, but he clearly is a limited player. With the KI show in town, it made sense to unload him. Getting a #1 this year (in a very deep draft) makes us the winner in my view. Period. As an aside, I finally listened to the podcast and was surprised that everyone agreed that KI’s ceiling was below Rose’s. KI’s shooting efficiency this year was higher than Rose’s has ever been. KI’s PER was substantially higher than Rose’s in his first and second years, and… Read more »
In my opinion… Round 3 doesn’t matter at all. Sessions wasn’t going to resign with us, so the move had to be made. Even if Sessions finds a jump shot and some defense and goes on to be an All-Star point guard, this trade is at least a wash. But…we can win this trade by at least capitalizing on Rounds 2 and 4. Round 2. Finding a rotation player with the Laker pick this year will not only weigh into wether we win or tie this trade, but it will determine if we can continue this Irving-accelerated rebuild, and ultimately… Read more »
After LeBron left, I decided, maybe it was LeBron, and not MB. Maybe MB deserved another shot. After games 4 and 5, I decided there needs to be a new NBA commercial with pissed off looks from Kobe then LeBron — cut to Antawn Jamison and Pau Gasol looking clueless and frustrated, and finally a cut to Brown flashing that dopey Al Roker grin and generally looking unfazed. Cut to Andrew Bynum watching a rebound go over his head, and then Donyell Marshall bricking a game winner. “The NBA: Where Mike Brown coaching in the playoffs happens.”
Maybe LA can hire Stan Van Gundy. They weren’t able to get Dwight.