Cavs: Teammates scolding Collin Sexton has led to his increased efficiency

Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard Collin Sexton has been shooting three-pointers at a noticeably higher rate after the All-Star break, of which he’s knocking down at a high clip, and he explained the reason for that uptick in three-point rate postgame yesterday.

For much of this season, one of the biggest critiques for Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard Collin Sexton has been his resistance to shoot three-pointers, both off the dribble and off the catch.

We’ve often addressed here at KJG how the 20-year-old would instead elect to shoot long two-point jumpers, which at times would be in the flow of the offense, but a considerable amount of the time would be forced shots and be much more contested than the threes already available.

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The “Young Bull” has recently shown the willingness to take many more shots from deep, though. Post-All-Star break, he’s taken 5.6 three-point shots per game, and he’s knocked in 46.8 percent of those (in 14 games), per NBA.com.

Pre-All-Star break, Sexton was hitting deep balls at a 39.2 percent clip, but he was only attempting 2.7 per game. As Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor emphasized, before the break, Sexton was also attempting “5.4 mid-range shots” per contest, whereas post-All-Star break, Fedor noted the rookie is only attempting “1.6 mid-range shots” per contest.

After the Cavs won last night against the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks, in which Sexton kept his red-hot production going with 25 points (including four-of-seven shooting from three-point land, per ESPN), he gave the reason for his increased efficiency lately.

It’s because apparently Cleveland Cavaliers’ teammates were scolding Sexton for taking inefficient shots, and now he’s been applying that in the closing stretch of his first year, per Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies (h/t Uproxx’s Jordan Zirm).

Sexton seems to be a player who is very receptive of critiques of his game, and based on what has been said about him by members of the local and national media, he’s going to work tirelessly to turn perceived weaknesses into strengths.

Fedor detailed how during one week earlier this year, Sexton worked and worked and worked some more on his shot, and out of “9,000 shots counted” from Cleveland players at their Cleveland Clinic Courts counted by an “internal monitoring system” there, “Sexton took 3,000.”

Fedor also highlighted that because the rookie routinely gets to the arena he’s playing in at “5:00” to get “a lengthy shooting session in with player development ace Mike Gerrity — he’s improved his outside shot faster than even the Cavs expected.”

From there, Fedor then touched on how Sexton credits “his father for finding necessary tweaks while watching film.”

Clearly, that work ethic has led to the youngster having an explosion of scoring production as of late; HoopsHabit’s Ryan Piers broke down keys to Sexton’s recent surge (for the record).

Sexton’s the first rookie in team history to have at least 23 points in seven consecutive games, and is the first NBA rookie to hit do that since Tim Duncan did it for the San Antonio Spurs back in April of 1998, per the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This improved willingness to take a high volume of three-pointers when the opportunity has presented itself has led to Sexton getting more free throw chances, too.

Pre-All-Star, Sexton averaged 2.9 free throw attempts per game, and post-All-Star, he’s gotten 4.1 attempts per game, according to NBA.com.

On the season, he’s shot 83.7 percent from the charity stripe, and Tristan Thompson described how Sexton shooting those threes at a higher rate opens up the interior for him, which explains the uptick in free throw chances (per the Cleveland Cavaliers).

It doesn’t seem as though the Cavs are talking about growing pains as much since the All-Star break in regards to their rookie point guard.

Sexton is showing that he’s as mentally tough as it gets for a 20-year-old, and I would have to believe that Cleveland general manager Koby Altman and others in the organization have to be more than pleased with their rookie’s ability to adjust his game as the year has progressed.