Sacramento's signing of Ramon Sessions today surprised some people who were a little confused as to why the Kings were relegating promising youngster Ray McCallum further to the bench. McCallum had a very impressive summer league and also showed flashes of brilliance at the end of last season when taking over for the injured Isaiah Thomas.
Before the Sessions' signing, McCallum was set to be Darren Collison's primary backup for next season, one of the pros for many fans upset at the loss of Isaiah Thomas. Now McCallum is back to being a third string Point Guard, just like for most of his rookie year.
It seems for now that the Kings are fine with bringing on McCallum slowly rather than throwing him right into the fire, a developmental tactic that I am more than alright with. Sessions and Collison are both veterans that will be able to give productive minutes while McCallum can play spot minutes and continue to grow as a player, while being ready to step in if the opportunity comes. Despite his promise as a player, he's still a young player with flaws; Last season he shot just 37.8% on two point shots. For comparison, Ben McLemore was at 41.9% on two point shots and nobody was calling him a good shooter.
I would also be remiss not to note that McCallum now becomes more expendable as a trade asset. The Kings now have a decent 1-2 punch at PG now with Collison and Sessions, and McCallum has some value thanks to his youth, talent and small contract. For a team that doesn't particularly have a great many assets in the first place, McCallum is one that could be used in a future trade. But by no means does this signing signal that the Kings are actively looking to trade McCallum.
McCallum is also still eligible to play in Reno this season, and I wouldn't be surprised if he spends some more time down there. We've been used to having our young guys play a lot of meaningful minutes early in their career, but much of that was simply because we haven't had any better options. Now we do, and the Kings have the luxury of taking a slower approach that will hopefully pay dividends in the future.