Ramon Sessions will tell anyone who will listen he is enjoying his time as a Laker — he has come in and provided some quickness and playmaking at the point guard the team desperately needed under new coach Mike Brown. He said he really wants to return to the Lakers next season.
Just not enough to pick up his player option for next year.
Rather, he is likely to opt-out and become a free agent so he can get paid. But he told the Los Angeles Times he’d like to get paid by the Lakers ideally.
Sessions is set to make just under $4.6 million next season. The Lakers have his Bird rights, but they are also a team trying to trim payroll because with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum alone they are going to be paying the luxury tax in the coming years — and in the new CBA that tax gets more regressive and painful each year.
The Lakers want him back and he wants to come back, you would think a deal could get done. But if the Lakers are trying to save money and another team that needs a point guard comes in over the top… money still talks in the NBA.
It’s going to be an interesting summer in Los Angeles as the Lakers try to work an extension for Bynum (next season is the last year of his deal) while getting their tax bill down.
