Sessions, from Brew Hoop and more

For those of us still trying to get an idea of just what Ramon Sessions brings to the Wolves, here are some quotes I found over at the Bucks' SBNation blog, Brew Hoop.

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When I got to looking through the Basketball Prospectus stats for Ramon, I really was amazed at all the things that he brings to the table.

His WARP (Wins Above Replacement Level Player) is 6.4, the best on the Milwaukee Bucks. Basically that means if you took a team full of replacement level players, and put Ramon Sessions at the point, they would win about 6.4 games more than expected based on his talent alone. The next closest is Charlie Villanueva at 5.9, not surprisingly the other guy the Bucks will have trouble retaining. Andrew Bogut is at 3.4, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute at 2.4, Luke Ridnour at 2.4, Michael Redd at 2.3, and Richard Jefferson at 1.9.

What makes Sessions so valuable, other than the fact that he's arguably the Bucks most talented point guard? He dishes out the ball well. His assists/40 mins mark is up to 8.4, and he averages 5.6 assists per game. His pass rating (a combination of assists normalized by minutes played, and assist/turnover ratio) is up at 6.06, by far the best on the team. This rating puts him near the top of the league, and he even ranks better than the likes of Tony Parker (5.54), but not quite up to the caliber of Steve Nash, Jason Kidd or Rajon Rondo yet (all in the double digits).

Furthermore, Sessions is a big part of the offense. He hands out an assist on 9.2% of the team's possessions which seems low, but when you think about it, it's a good margin (also puts him among the top in the league). He is responsible for creating 1039 points for the Bucks this year, in some fashion or another - about 13.5 per game.

What sets Sessions apart from Ridnour as the other point guard option on the team, in addition to what has been said, is his defense. Sessions only had 937 points created against him this season so far, which means that he created close to 1.5 points more per game than he allowed. His dMULT is 0.959 which means that he held his counterpart to about 96% of their normal production on a per possession basis. Compare these stats with Ridnour, who allows about 1.2 more points per game than he creates and allows his counterpart to score about 102% of their normal production.

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Sessions is an intruiging young player who has put up some crazy numbers over his 1.5 seasons.  He's not a great athlete, but has good size for the pros.  His speed is adequate, as is his defense.  Where he's special is when he can get penetration on the defense and use that pressure to distribute the ball or draw fouls.  This is mitigated somewhat by his sub-par dribbling skills (a trait an NBA point guard should not at all have), but it hasn't really shown yet.

In a way, Jennings and Sessions are polar opposites of each other [Ed. observation--this gets crazy interesting if you replace Jennings with Flynn. Discuss].  Jennings is lightning-quick, Sessions is not.  Jennings is almost tiny, Sessions is not.  Jennings will often look for his own shot, Sessions does not.  Jennings takes risks and makes poor decisions, Sessions does not.

Here's an interview Sessions did:

Matt Watson: You were filling in for [Michael] Redd for a while. Is that a role that you're comfortable in, or do you have a preference of wanting the ball in your hands?
Ramon Sessions: I've been playing the one my whole career; this is the first time I've ever played the two, this season. But I mean, hey, if I have to go out there and play the two, I'll do it. I'll guard bigger guys and play the shooting guard position, it really don't matter – as long as I'm out there on the floor getting playing time, helping the team.

And finally, if you had to choose between Raymond Felton and Ramon Sessions, who would you choose?

Verdict: If I were a team that needed a point guard, I would have to go with Sessions - assuming they came at similar price tags. Especially if I were a run-and-gun team, Sessions would be a better fit.