Cavs: Grading Collin Sexton’s play at just past halfway point
By Corey Casey
At just past the halfway point of the 2019-20 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers find themselves at 12-31. Here’s how second-year guard Collin Sexton has graded out so far this year.
Coming into the 2019-20 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, young guard Collin Sexton was coming off a solid rookie year in which he averaged 16.7 points, 3.0 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game, according to Basketball Reference.
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Sexton also broke Kyrie Irving‘s Cavs’ rookie record in terms of made three-pointers, and hit 40.2% of his attempts from beyond the arc and shot 43.0% from the field, again both per Basketball Reference.
Sexton came into this year trying to build off a really nice rookie year as a scorer and while he’s obviously not a finished product, there is a lot to like about the second-year guard.
We’ll get into how Collin has done on the offensive end at just past the halfway point of this season first.
Sexton’s offensive play at this point
Collin Sexton is currently shooting 16.3 shots per game, which is the most this season on the Cavaliers this year, as noted by NBA.com and which is higher than his 14.7 attempts per game last year.
Sexton has improved his scoring from last year to averaging 19.3 points per game, which is leading Cleveland, and he’s shooting better from the field overall at 45.6%.
Sexton has shown in his first two years he can score, and that’s very clear. Sexton is a blur in the open court and can just blow past guys.
It also appears he has rediscovered the jump shot he had during post-All-Star break last year as of late from three-point range, too.
After struggling for the first few months of this season Sexton is making teams pay for going under screens and daring him to beat them from three-point range. In the month of January (10 games), he’s averaging 22.9 points per game on 47.3% shooting overall and 48.0% from deep, as shown by NBA.com.
Where Sexton really needs to improve is his vision/playmaking, though. Sexton is currently averaging only 2.3 assists per game at just past the 2019-20 season’s halfway point.
Sexton is coming off an outing at the Memphis Grizzlies in what was arguably his best game of the season in which he had 28 points and six assists, though, as noted by ESPN, and it was good to see the second-year guard get others on the Cleveland Cavaliers involved.
Sexton was able to make a number of really smart reads and he had his best game of the season. Still Sexton has a ton to improve on when it comes to his vision and playmaking, unfortunately.
Offensive grade at this point in 2019-20: C+
Too often Sexton gets tunnel vision. Far too often, he dribbles into the teeth of the opposing defense where either a jump shot is forced or he gets his shot blocked.
Sexton is still very young and still has a chance to grow into a better passer/playmaker, though. If Sexton can find a way to to improve in that area, he has a chance to perhaps be the next Lou Williams as one of the league’s best bench scorers.