Collin Sexton should be Cavaliers’ primary option next season

Next season, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ primary offensive option, mostly in the scoring sense, should be Collin Sexton.

It’s evident at this point that Collin Sexton looks to be one of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ most promising young pieces.

While he’s still far from a finished product for the Wine and Gold, and I’d like to see him continue to progress as a passer and on-ball/team defender, one thing is a certainty when it comes to Sexton.

What us Cavs fans can all attest to, no matter our overall feeling about Sexton and factoring in his potential long term fit playing alongside Darius Garland and others, is that Sexton can flat-out score the basketball.

The 21-year-old had 16.7 points per game in his rookie season in 2018-19, and this year, he’s continued on an upward trajectory in that realm, as he’s led Cleveland virtually all season in scoring with 20.8 points per game, according to NBA.com.

Most impressively, Collin has proven to be a big-time bucket-getter at all three levels, and leading up to the NBA season’s suspension related to precaution/social distancing induced by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Sexton was showing more and more ability to change speeds.

In the pick-and-roll this year as a scorer, Sexton has been able to feast in the mid-range area via pull-ups, and he’s clearly one of the fastest players in the entire Association. That in turn, makes a big difference even when it seems opposing defenders are in capable guarding position to defend his drives.

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Plus, Sexton again has proven to be a more than capable three-point shooter, off-the-catch, in particular, which to me, shows even more why next season, the Young Bull should the Cavs’ primary offensive option next season.

Young Bull has knocked down 38.0 percent of his three-point attempts, and 42.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

He’s also hit a respectable 35.0 percent on pull-up triples, and with his speed in being able to blow by primary defenders, and with him knocking down 44.6 percent of his shot attempts from 10-16 feet out this year, according to Basketball Reference, he should be the Cavs’ first option, mostly in the scoring sense, next season.

Moreover, even while I still am a believer in Darius Garland and think if he can get stronger, that that will help him inside the arc as a scorer/playmaker in getting through contact, and Kevin Porter Jr. has flashed big-time potential on both ends this year.

Anyhow, it’s clear that though he was not Cleveland’s leading scorer, Kevin Love has been the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first offensive option this year, and rightfully so, with his inside-out scoring prowess and him being a good secondary playmaker, as evidenced by his 3.2 assists per game.

However, while Love has still been solid with 17.6 points per outing on a near-career-best 55.0 percent effective field goal shooting clip, next season and perhaps going forward, Sexton should be the Cavs’ primary option and be featured even more.

Now I’m not saying he needs to be continually force-fed with Cleveland having a bunch of players that will need shots, including likely a very high 2020 NBA Draft selection, but Sexton as Love has been this year, needs to the well Cleveland goes to first and foremost. That’s even more so throughout games as Love is their go-to when the offense needs a boost currently.

Plus, while his 3.0 assists per game this year are far from eye-popping, Sexton has shown improved timing in hitting spray-outs to shooters such as Cedi Osman, Garland and Love.

Coupled with that, especially post-All-Star break, he’s found dump-offs more often and lobs occasionally to bigs such as Andre Drummond and Larry Nance Jr., and in his last 15 games leading into the season’s suspension, Collin averaged 4.3 assists per outing to go with 24.5 points.

In summation, with the continued growth Sexton has shown, also as a cutter this year, too, and with Cleveland potentially looking to deal Love feasibly by next year’s trade deadline, even more so if they draft a big such as Dayton’s Obi Toppin or USC’s Onyeka Okongwu, Sexton should absolutely be the Cavs’ first option next year.

Again, though, that’s not to say Garland, KPJ and others won’t get more than ample opportunities to get in their own rhythm, too.

That being said, with what Sexton’s shown this season, he should be option #1 for Cleveland next season (whenever next season eventually is) and the undisputed go-to guy. That’s whether or not Love sticks around.