Are Lakers Contender With Sessions/Smith?

What's up Laker fans new here just wondering if you guys think the Lakers would be a championship threat once again if they acquired Ramon Sessions of the Cleveland Cavaliers and signed J.R. Smith.

I don't think those players make or break a team.

At the end of the day it takes a functional team with a lot of talent and no glaring weakness. We can overcome the lack of athleticism but it remains to be seen.

Personally I'm not sure we have what it takes from a team perspective. Talentwise we might have enough talent.

I doubt it. Sessions wouldn't do anything on this team, especially when Blake comes back. JR Smith can provide some athleticism and 3pt shooting, but I think it'll take much more than that to fix this team.

Smith's skills are necessary. His off-court issues aren't.

Sessions can pass to others, but he can't shoot.

Do they help us? Hard to say. But acquiring them is better than doing nothing.

Don't have hardly any options.. Smith is worth the gamble. I don't think his ego will be hard to handle he'll cower at the core of this team in my opinion. We used to think Barnes was an idiot too.. he's been just fine attitude wise and the same goes for Ron.

Not a fan of Sessions myself.

The Lakers are contenders now, but those two would help. The problem is pulling the trigger on anything means you'd be giving up potential trade assets from another trade.

The Dwight talks might be getting old, but until that domino officially falls, most of the league is in limbo from a trade perspective.

They would both help us in areas we need help in. It's kinda hard to know if we'd be contenders with a legit PG & scorer off the bench, because we've never seen the team have both. If I had to guess I'd say yes.. Our PG play kills us now & JR would hopefully keep our scrub SF's on the bench where they belong

So the implication is that we are not contenders as is?

I dont think so.

I think the caliber of point guard needed is much greater than what Sessions can provide. As for J Smith, I would love to bring him in but that wouldnt make us a contender either...we'd score more freely but we'd still be short, IMO.

kray28 wrote:So the implication is that we are not contenders as is?

Depends on what type of contender. A championship contender? No. A playoff contender? Yes. If we're content to be a mid/low seed playoff contender, then we stand pat. If we want to move up the ladder, we need to make a move. But I don't see any moves that make us a championship contender besides D Williams. Trading major pieces for him now could affect our future down the road.

Maybe its better to trade for a couple mid level PG/SF guys and try to be a second round playoff team. Then see if you can sign him after the season. Either that or consider this a throw away year, stand pat and look to the offseason to rebuild. Would that be acceptable to Laker fans?

The Lakers big 3 can be counted on for 60-70 points.

Can Sessions & Smith working with the other Lakers contribute 20-30 more?

Yes => contenders.

No => non-contenders.

kray28 wrote:So the implication is that we are not contenders as is?

I would LOVE to believe we are, but we are the same team we were last year minus the 6th man of the year and one of the top 3 greatest coaches of all time. Last years team got swept out of the second round and had trouble with a stripped hornets team in the first round.

OKC. Chicago, and Miami are all DEFINITELY better than us. Unless all three of them suffer injuries to Durant/Rose/LBJ, we will not win with this team as currently constructed.

Savory Griddles wrote:

kray28 wrote:So the implication is that we are not contenders as is?

I would LOVE to believe we are, but we are the same team we were last year minus the 6th man of the year and one of the top 3 greatest coaches of all time. Last years team got swept out of the second round and had trouble with a stripped hornets team in the first round.

OKC. Chicago, and Miami are all DEFINITELY better than us. Unless all three of them suffer injuries to Durant/Rose/LBJ, we will not win with this team as currently constructed.

Not entirely true about being the same team.

We're a MUCH better defensive team. We're struggling offensively, but honestly, how can a team with Kobe/Bynum/Pau NOT figure it out at some point how to put points on the board?

On paper, this team is a contender as currently constructed. If any team is paying one man who is good enough to be worth $30M and can still surround him with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum ... how can you not be a contender?

We are contenders now. Also we aren't a finished product either... We will get better regardless of acquisitions. If we can get a good/very good guard then we will be even better.

Outside of OKC in the West I think we can beat anyone in a 7 game series. We are much better suited to that than we are to this compressed regular season IMHO......

If we can get a solid vet guard that can shoot and create we will be in very good shape.

Keep in mind that we have 3 players that are among the top 2 or 3 at their position in Kobe, Pau and Andrew..... Only Miami can claim a similar 3 players. Our role players are in disarray currently but I believe we will find a rotation that will provide the needed bench production once Blake returns.

Welcome to the site.

We already have a thread open for what Sessions would do for the team.

We already have a thread open for what JR Smith would do for the team.

We already have a thread open for whether we are still contenders.

I suppose we don't have a thread combining all three ideas into one, but at the same time I'm not sure we need such a combo thread.