Cleveland Cavaliers: Three post-All-Star break goals for Collin Sexton

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Cleveland Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton defends. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

Post-All-Star break goal #2 for Sexton: Average 1.2 steals/game

Sexton is still going to have his share of issues in pick-and-roll ball-handling coverage against well-timed screens, as many young guards do, and he’s still going to have some problems against physical screens off the ball.

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That’s to be expected, however, and with Cleveland playing so many young pieces alongside Sexton in meaningful minutes, that hasn’t made it easier for him defensively, either.

On the plus side, though, Collin’s been more effective when he’s been locked into primary matchups this season, and has contested shots more under-control, which is a crucial part of perimeter defense.

Along with that, it’s been encouraging to see Sexton time up making plays in passing lanes better this year, often by taking better angles to lead to run-outs.

In a full 82 games of appearances as a rookie, he had only 44 steals, whereas through 54 games thus far in 2019-20, he’s already piled up 53 steals, both per Basketball Reference.

Also, in Sexton’s last 10 games, he’s had 1.2 steals per outing, and to me, with him showing better anticipation as of late, 1.2 steals per game the rest of this season is a good goal to strive for. If he achieves that, it would show Collin’s growing as a rotator and is consistently more active defensively from a team perspective, which is what Bickerstaff and company want to see from the young guard.

Sexton’s going to inherently have some unfavorable matchups, but continued growth in this area getting steals as a rotator/team defender on the weak and/or strong side is something that can help those around him and generate more easy transition scoring opportunities as well from live-ball takeaways.

Lastly, the third post-All-Star goal I have for Sexton relates to his perimeter shooting.