NBA Notes: Jackson wanted Kobe to play like LeBron

During Phil Jackson’s time as a head coach in the NBA, he was able to coach two of the best guards of all-time in Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, while winning 11 championships during his career.

Despite his great success with Bryant though, Jackson said he would have rather him play a different style of game in which he does not always look to score first. Jackson told HBO Real Sports in an interview that he actually tried to get Bryant to model his game after LeBron James’ (see more at ProBasketballTalk).

Miller considering return to Nuggets
Former Sixers point guard Andre Miller is considering a return to Denver for the 2012-13 NBA season. With Ty Lawson in place as the Nuggets point guard of the future, many have speculated that Miller would look to go elsewhere in free agency so he could have the opportunity to start. But The Denver Post reported that Miller has had positive talks with the Nuggests’ front office about returning to the team he has spent five of his 14 career seasons (via PBT).

Miller appeared in 66 games for the Nuggets last season, starting seven of them, and he averaged 9.7 points per game and 6.7 assists per game.

Sessions opts out of contract's final year
It’s official. The Lakers gave up a first-round pick for 35 games of Ramon Sessions.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that the point guard opted out of the final year of his deal that would have paid him $4.5 million (via Pro Basketball Talk).

In March, the Lakers received Sessions along with Christian Eyenga in a trade that sent Jason Kapono, Luke Walton and their 2012 first-round draft pick to the Cavaliers.

In 23 regular season games with the Lakers, Sessions averaged 12.7 points per game on 47.9 percent shooting to go with 6.2 assists per game. But in 12 playoff games, his field goal percentage dropped to 37 percent and he shot just 16 percent from beyond the three-point line.