Knicks add Sessions to mentor Ntilikina
The Knicks have their mentor for rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina.
Ramon Sessions, 31, a 10-year veteran who spent last season with the Hornets, has signed a one-year deal worth $2.33 million, according to the guard’s agent, Mark Bartelstein.
Sessions carries career averages of 10.6 points and 4.1 assists. Last season, he averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 assists but missed the final 32 games because of a torn meniscus in his left knee.
The Knicks’ starter in 2016-17, Derrick Rose, signed a one-year, $2.1 million deal with the Cavaliers this past week. Rose also saw his season cut short because of a meniscus tear in his left knee.
The Knicks drafted Ntilikina, then an 18year-old from France — he turned 19 Friday — with the eighthoverall pick in last month’s draft. The Knicks also have point guard Ron Baker, coming off an undrafted rookie season. But Baker’s campaign earned him a two-year, $8.9 million contract, the second year a player option, through the room exception for teams under the salary cap. The Knicks wanted a veteran to guide both Ntilikina and Baker.
A second-round pick by Milwaukee out of Nevada in 2007, Sessions has played with seven different organizations, including Charlotte and Milwaukee twice. Fun fact: Sessions appeared in 83 regular season games in 2013-14, when he was traded from Charlotte to Milwaukee in-season. He played 55 games for Charlotte, 28 for Milwaukee.
Even before his knee injury, last season was a struggle for Sessions who averaged double figures for four straight seasons from 2010-11 to 2013-14. His best offensive season was 2012-13, when he averaged 14.4 points during his first tour of duty in Charlotte.
Sessions is the second outside free agent signed by new team president Steve Mills, who succeeded the ousted Phil Jackson, and the first under new general manager Scott Perry. The Knicks previously signed Tim Hardaway Jr. to a four-year, $71 million deal to bring him back from Atlanta.