Los Angeles Lakers: Why They Need Gilbert Arenas, Not Ramon Sessions

The Los Angeles Lakers appear ready to add either Gilbert Arenas or Ramon Sessions. The team needs to sign the gunner-formerly-known-as Agent Zero, and here is why:

For one thing, the Lakers' offense has been stagnant, and Arenas is a proven scorer. The Lakers are 20th in the NBA in scoring and have one player amongst their top six shooting above 31 percent from three-point land. His name is not Kobe Bryant, but backup point guard Steve Blake. Arenas is a 35-percent shooter from three-point land for his career, and could be a big help spreading the floor for Kobe and company. 

Of course, another one of the Lakers' problems is defense from the point guard position. Arenas has never been praised of being an elite defender, but anyone is an upgrade over Derek Fisher at this point in his career.

Arenas is not going to help much on D, and Sessions is definitely a better defender than Arenas, but Mike Brown's system has always produced solid defensive clubs. The length of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum will help erase defensive mistakes on the perimeter.

They don't need an elite defender at point guard, they just need one that isn't terrible. At 37 years old, even Arenas is a far better defender than Fisher, so they actually will get an upgrade there as well.

Besides, the Lakers' biggest issue is offense, and Sessions is not a lot of help there. He may be a better pure point guard, but Brown's teams have made it as far as the NBA Finals without a true point guard. Remember that LeBron James guy that used to bring the ball up in Cleveland? Kobe has been doing a lot of the same in LA. 

Of course, the elephant in the room is that Arenas was awful in his last stop, with the Orlando Magic. However, with a player like Arenas, his mental state of mind is as important as anything he can do physically.

Two years ago, Arenas was in the midst of his best season as a true point guard (a career-high 7.2 assists in 32 games) before the "guns in the locker room" incident ended his season. He was playing OK in Washington as he was trying to adjust his game to complement John Wall. The trade to Orlando, where he was coming off the bench for the first time in his career, put him a mental funk that he never snapped out of him.

Competing for a championship in Los Angeles could be the spark that brings Agent Zero back to the NBA.