T-Wolves Daily News 8.10.10 – In Defense of Ramon Sessions

(Traded due to extreme lack of smiles)

Brendan from the excellent Cavs blog Stepien Rules, emailed me the other day asking what Cavs fans could expect from Ramon Sessions this upcoming season.  I figured I could help him out here (especially since he didn’t ask what could be expected from Ryan Hollins.)  I like Ramon, so no harm no foul.

Re-reading what I had sent him, it really does appear that I’m “defending” Sessions’ last season with the Wolves.  I’m ok with that since I like him, liked the signing initially, and the Wolves blogosphere irrationally seems to hate him.

To read the entire post about Sessions, as well as thoughts from Brew Hoop on this matter, check it out over at Stepien Rules by clicking HERE.

Here’s what I said about Sessions over at Stepien Rules…

“Ramon Sessions’ career has been interesting.  He certainly has the talent and ability, but hasn’t really been given the chance to take over a PG role full-time in either Milwaukee or Minnesota.  He had been playing very well for the Bucks (which partly convinced KAHN to sign him), although the Bucks choose to let him go rather than match the relatively paltry salary of $4 million per year offered by the Wolves.  A Jennings-Sessions combo would have been nice though, I think.

He is a good floor leader, nice passer, solid at getting to the rim, and a serviceable defender.  Unfortunately, he can’t shoot from 3-point range if his life depended on it.  He’s so bad (and he knows it), that he simply doesn’t even attempt 3’s.  Which if you think about it, probably means he’s pretty smart for not jacking up terrible shots.  And for the record, he’s only made 10 out of 56 career threes (17.9%!) in 4,354 minutes played.  Egads.

The downside to this is that his defender can sag off him, close off driving lanes, and clog up the lane/help with other defenders.  So although I like Sessions and liked the signing, he really wasn’t a very good fit in the TWolves hybrid Uptempo-Fail Triangle offense.  Because even in a sucktastic hybrid Triangle offense, you still need your PG to be able to shoot the ball, even moreso when he’s left open.  And really, this problem falls on Kahn.  I get that he signed him because he was a cheap asset that (presumably at the time), could have been flipped for something better later down the road, but he didn’t fit on our team, and he eventually moved him for nothing other than a salary dump to help cancel out yet another bad signing (Ryan “Cement Hands” Hollins.)

With all that said, he actually still managed to play decently well for the TWolves last year.  At least, he passed the eye test.  I’m not even going to pretend to go spouting off synergy sports numbers or other such blah blah blah; because who cares when the team won 15 games and has 80% new players the next off-season. His stats weren’t great, but he never played enough minutes, nor was he consistently given a chance to succeed.  And Flynn certainly was NOT head and shoulders above him, regardless of what sexy stats show.  Sessions just never got enough of a chance.  That’s the bottom line to this story.

And let’s not even talk about the players he was mostly stuck playing alongside.  Guys like Sasha Pavlobrick, Ryan Hollins, Wayne Ellington, Damien Wilkins, etc.  How is he going to put up any stats playing the majority of his minutes with the likes of that?!?

As a Wolves fan that watches 90%+ of our games, I honestly and truly believe Ramon Sessions is a better player than any statistic from last season will negatively point out.

I think he will fit in nicely with Cleveland.  It’s still not the ideal role for him, as I presume Mo Williams will get the lion’s share of minutes at PG.  However, Sessions can play off the ball at SG as well.  His stats last year playing SG were no worse than PG, and in some cases he played better at SG.  So maybe he and Mo Will can mesh on the court and work out nicely together.  If you give Sessions a consistent 25-30 minutes per game on your squad, I think it will turn out to be a big ‘plus’ trade for the Cavs.  I mean, at least in comparison to what you gave up (basically nothing, although I loved Delonte’s game 2 years ago.)”

Please click “Read More” for other T-Wolves Daily News and Info…

1 on 1 Interview with Anthony Tolliver

From Jonah Ballow at Timberwolves.com:

1 on 1 Interview with Kevin Love

From The Hoop Doctors:

T-Wolves Officially sign Anthony Tolliver

From Ray Richardson at the Pioneer Press:

The Minnesota Timberwolves officially signed 6-foot-8 free-agent forward Anthony Tolliver to a deal reportedly worth $4.8 million over two years.

Tolliver, 25, averaged 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in 44 games last season with the Golden State Warriors. He has appeared in 65 NBA regular-season games over the past three seasons with Golden State, Portland and San Antonio. He scored a career-high 34 points against the Timberwolves on April 7 last season in Golden State’s 116-107 win at Target Center.

Tolliver will be formally introduced to the local media Tuesday afternoon. On Friday, Tolliver actually announced himself, on YouTube, that he was going to the Wolves.

The lighthearted video spoofed LeBron James’ one-hour ESPN special last month announcing the former Cleveland Cavalier’s decision to sign with the Miami Heat. Tolliver’s video, which featured him holding up a piece of paper with the words “Minnesota Timberwolves,” was only 69 seconds.

Jonny Flynn: Rules of Attraction

From Jameel at Eighty81:

4. What is the craziest best/worst thing that has ever happened on your first few dates with a person?

Here’s a little story of one of my worst dates….My homeboys girl, hooks me up with one of her home girls. I knew of her, but didn’t know her. We would be cordial every time we would see each other. “Hi’s” and “bye’s” basically. Gorgeous woman! She could dress, wavy hair, beautiful smile (some of the straightest teeth I’ve ever seen), shoe game was on point, nice body; the list goes on. So my homeboys girl asked me if she could give her my number. Of course I didn’t hesitate because there was a check next to all of my “attractive points” on her.
So a couple days later she texts me, I find out she has Blackberry, and we exchange pins (you know how that goes). When I say great BBM convos, that’s an understatement. These were the convos that stretched through the whole day. So I’m thinking this is a girl that I could possibly be around a lot due to the fact that are close friends were in a relationship together. This could be good. She’s beautiful, fresh, and the first two BBM convos were poppin. So I’m feeling good right now. But I never found it weird that she didn’t want to talk on the phone. I mean we are in an era where texting has took over for talking.

We eventually set something up for when I came back to town, to go grab dinner. I’m hype! On my flight back home this basically all I’m thinking about. When I get back to my spot I throw on my Moncler vest, A.P.C jeans, Lanvins on the feet, and A.P on the wrist. I knew she was going to come with it, so why shouldn’t I?

I go pick her up, she’s looking stunning as usual, and I proceed to go to dinner. The Restaurant was close, so the convo in the car was very short. As we are sitting at the table and enjoying our dinner, I notice that her answers to all my questions were really short. I mean I’m CARRYING the WHOLE conversation. Let me give you a visual…remember how Mike Jordan was draped in Scottie Pippen’s arms walking off the court during the “Flu Game?” Yea it was like that. I mean I couldn’t get anything out of her. I’m thinking to myself something has to be wrong with her. So I ask if something was bothering her, and she said no. No sickness. No death in the family. No bad news.

There were countless moments of awkward silence during the date. I even started playing with my chin hairs. That’s how bad it got. The next day I run into my homeboys girl and tell her how bad the date went, and she just starts laughing hysterically. Come to find out the girl I was on a date with sister, was the one BBMing me the whole time! I guess these two were always together all the time. She began to tell me the girl just didn’t know how to hold a good conversation, so her sister did it for her. I was in total shock. I didn’t know what to say. She had all the physical attributes, material things, but was lacking what matters most a personality. NO BUENO. Damn you BBM!