Ramon Sessions Trade: Cheap Upgrade at Point Guard Makes Lakers Title Contenders

What is all this talk about the Los Angeles Lakers trading Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum for a point guard?

None of it ever made sense and thankfully the Lakers never wilted. They know their strengths and it's good to see them have faith in their bigs.

The Lakers instead dealt Luke Walton and a future draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga.

The Purple and Gold never needed a guy like Kyle Lowry or Deron Williams because that would mean dealing Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. It made more sense to acquire someone cheap for a draft pick or their traded player exception.

The Lakers needed someone that could facilitate and make the job easier for the offense. Ramon Sessions is very capable of doing this. He's averaging 11 points and five assists for the Cavaliers in a backup role behind Kyrie Irving.

Last season as a starter, he shot almost 47 percent and averaged over 13 points per game on an atrocious Cleveland team following the LeBron James fallout. 

He also has a Player Efficiency Rating of 16.44, which is above average. Derek Fisher and Steve Blake have PERs of 9.01 and 8.87, respectively. This stat exemplifies how much better the Lakers just got at point guard.

Sessions is now surrounded by better players. Not only will they elevate his game, but he will do the same for them. It'll be a beautiful symbiotic relationship which will lead to wins for the Lakers.

The Lakers have plenty of momentum and confidence after winning three straight road games, including back-to-back wins in Memphis and New Orleans on consecutive nights in overtime. They've played 111 minutes of basketball in the last two nights and getting wins in those two games only makes the team feel better about themselves.

Now with Sessions, they get a solid defender and an even better distributor and all they give up is a draft pick and a guy who was highly overpaid and never played. 

That's actually the best part of the deal. The Lakers got a steal. They didn't give up anything. Meanwhile, they fill a gaping hole at point guard and take an enormous amount of pressure off Derek Fisher, who has fired around five air balls in the last two games. At his age, the legendary Fisher will be more effective coming off the bench.

Finally, with Sessions on the Lakers, Steve Blake becomes expendable. He's been involved in rumors where he goes to Portland, Jamal Crawford gets sent to Minnesota and Michael Beasley comes to LA to bolster a weak bench. 

With an hour left in the deadline, we must wait to see if this happens.

For now, the Lakers should be content with the steal of the day.