3 Cavs players that have exceeded expectations in 2019-20

#1: Collin Sexton

Collin Sexton has still has room to grow as a passer in terms of his vision, and his team defensive feel I’d argue needs work (though it’s gotten better as a rotator), but I did not nearly see him putting up 20.8 points per game and virtually leading Cleveland all season in scoring.

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Realistically, I couldn’t have been more wrong predicting that Sexton would only put up 13.2 points per outing before the season.

To me and I’d imagine the Cavs, though, Sexton has shattered expectations.

The 21-year-old has improved as a scorer on the interior, and him getting stronger this past offseason paid off in that regard, and Sexton has shown the ability to change speeds more regularly, which was not something we saw really at all in his rookie season.

He’s also shown improvement as a cutter, and he’s hit 38.0 percent of his three-point attempts thus far this season, and he was hitting 43.1 percent of his deep attempts post-All-Star.

Plus, Sexton has shown growth as a passer, in terms of seeing spray-outs to shooters when help comes and he’d been finding dump-offs more frequently really from February until the hiatus, and his defensive positioning on the ball and him anticipating pull-ups more has been great to see.

Sexton has also averaged 1.0 steals per game as compared to just 0.5 per outing as a rookie, and his active hands have led to him breaking up hand-offs on occasion. Leading into the hiatus, he was consistently getting transition opportunities after ball-denials/leak-outs, too.

Projecting toward next season, the ultra-durable Sexton should definitely be the Cavs’ primary option, and hopefully, we’ll see him continue to make strides in other areas.