This is an absurd request in itself. The only players that reach free agency at Sessions age are second rounders, and you’re asking me to ignore the actual good players like Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer, or even Paul Millsap and instead stick with the mid-level players/scrubs. But here goes anyway.

Carl Landry
Glen Davis
Brandon Bass
Trevor Ariza
Zaza Pachulia

Is Sessions conclusively a better player than any of these players? Based on his one season of stat padding for a lottery team? Come on.

“I do not see how players like him come around that often.”

Players like LeBron James do not come around that often. Players like Ramon Sessions are a dime a dozen.

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/61567/20090913/knicks_sign_guard_sun_yue/

I also doubt that Walshtoni are crunching many numbers, but I like the Pruitt signing. It’s a non-guaranteed deal to a former early 2nd rounder who will only be 23.

Pruitt played all of 461 minutes in 2 years in Boston. Could be a bad sign given Boston’s desperation for a competent back-up PG, but since when have we ever believed that coaches always make the right personnel choices? Anyway, the point is that it’s a pretty small sample size. He did play 638 minutes in the D-League as a rookie. Also not a great showing: http://www.basketball-reference.com/nbdl/players/p/pruitga01d.html He did manage to hit 36% on 3s and put up a .502 eFG%, but there are plenty of negatives too.

I don’t have high hopes for Pruitt even making the team, but I also don’t mind taking a flyer on him. He hasn’t done anything to indicate that he’s an NBA player, but hasn’t really had the chance to prove that he’s definitely not at this point either.

“All of the non-guaranteed contracts look to be a complete waste for the 2nd year in a row.”

To be honest, I’m not familiar with the Knicks other options for non-guaranteed camp invites. I would assume there are some better options, but also some worse ones. Non-guaranteed camp invites tend to be a complete waste as a rule. You’re mining for a diamond in the rough.

And Gabe Pruitt. Yup he of sub 40% eFG & sub 30 3p%. Anyone think the Knick front office are using advanced stats?

I don’t really know. I generally believe that coach/system don’t have a HUGE impact on a player’s performance. There probably is some, though. D’Antoni’s is a system that generates a lot of 3s, relies on ball/player movement, and a lot of getting out in transition. He seems to focus more on offense than defense. I think most good NBA players would fit, but JCN is just someone whose strengths fit. If you ask him to be a walk-it-up PG, on the other hand, you’ll be very disappointed. He plays much better off the ball, and has a quick/accurate trigger and a knack for generating good looks within the offensive system (not “creating” one-on-one fade-aways in the tradition of recent Knicks “scorers).

Basically, I said first that he is a good player overall and second that D’Antoni would probably like him in that order because I think that’s the order of importance.

Even if JCN didn’t play any better for D’Antoni, he might get more minutes for D’Antoni than another coach and therefore be relatively more valuable to the team.

Ted, this is not to pick on you specifically, because we see this observation a lot on this forum, but how many guards wouldn’t excel under D’Antoni? His offense is shoot first, and he doesn’t ask a lot of his players on defense. And this is not a criticism of Mike, just an observation when it comes to his system and its appeal to NBA players.

PS LeBron’s mom said today there’s no way he’s leaving Cleveland. I guess we’ll see if he still listens to what she says.