Cavaliers: Grading Collin Sexton’s 2019-20 season thus far

Collin Sexton has taken positive strides for the Cleveland Cavaliers in his second season, and his scoring consistency has jumped out. Here, we’ll grade his 2019-20 season thus far.

It’s been a real pleasure for me to see Collin Sexton take further strides this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and it appears he’s established himself as one of the team’s core pieces.

Unfortunately for Sexton, the 2019-20 season is on hiatus until further notice given concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic. Along with that, as was h/t Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in his Friday media availability that the league and its’ Board of Governors are “not in any position to make any decisions and it’s unclear when we will be.”

It’s uncertain if the current season will eventually play out at least in some capacity, and in terms of other reported updates, you can view those here and also here.

Swinging back to Sexton’s play thus far this season, though, he’s been one of Cleveland’s most consistent players. That’s factoring in his durability in still not missing a game to this point in his near-two-year career, and with the positive strides he’s made as a three-level scorer, and his passing has gotten better.

Okay so first, we’ll get into Sexton’s offensive grade thus far in the 2019-20 season.

Looking at Sexton’s offensive play

Sexton has been terrific in his role on the offensive end, in switching to playing mostly the 2 guard position, with Sexton playing a ton of minutes alongside Cleveland’s fifth overall selection in the prior draft in lead guard Darius Garland.

Virtually this whole season to this point with the NBA’s season suspended, Sexton has led the Cleveland Cavaliers in scoring. Currently, Sexton has put up 20.8 points per game, and he’s done so on a better 56.0 percent true shooting clip, as opposed to last season’s true shooting rate of 52.0 percent, noted by NBA.com.

Sexton has gotten better in terms of his efficiency as a finisher at really all three levels, and it is evident that him getting stronger last offseason helped him near the rim, and Collin has flashed some dunking capability even over people on some occasions. All of his rookie season, Sexton had seven dunks, whereas at this juncture, which was set to have 17 more games before the season’s suspension, Sexton has already had 23 dunks, as shown by Basketball Reference.

Plus, Sexton has still shot 38.0 percent from three-point range, including hitting 42.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot triple attempts, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data. Additionally, Sexton has hit 35.0 percent on pull-up shots from downtown, and he’s shown growth as a cutter, too. That’s put him in good position to receive dishes from Darius Garland, Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr. and Kevin Porter Jr. to an extent.

What’s also been nice to see from Sexton throughout the year has been him showing the ability to change speeds in the pick-and-roll game, which has allowed him to get to his sweet spots in the mid-range area via pull-ups, and also explode into the paint, where he’s shown better touch on floaters.

Lastly, in terms of what’s been particularly encouraging about Sexton’s offensive play thus far this year, and mostly had been in the time of the year leading into the season’s suspension, it was Sexton’s growth as a passer.

No, Sexton’s assist per game average of 3.0 is not eye-popping, but for him going forward, in feasibly more of a secondary playmaking role, that’s fine.

Sexton had been displaying better feel as a passer in terms of hitting dump-offs to bigs, such as Andre Drummond, who is reportedly, in terms of potential scenarios, is “most likely” to opt into his $28.8 million player option for next season, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, along with Nance.

While Garland missing five games leading into the league’s suspension due to a left groin strain played into it a bit, it was also nice to see Collin have 4.2 assists per outing post-All-Star break.

I’d imagine moving forward, Sexton’s feel and scoring presence should open up more drive-and-dish/dump opportunities for him, and Cavs assistant coach Lindsay Gottlieb seemed to be helping in that regard, along with Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

Granted, Sexton’s vision is still not nearly what you’d want yet, and he still does over-dribble to some extent, which has led to unnecessary turnovers on occasion, and at times led to bad shots down the stretch of games.

Mostly, though, I’ve been really pleased with Sexton’s offensive play for the Wine and Gold to this point, which has led to the grade below.

Sexton’s offensive grade thus far in 2019-20: A-

Next up, we’ll look at Sexton’s defensive play to this point in the 2019-20 season for Cleveland.