Cavs: 3 areas where Collin Sexton needs to improve next season

#3: Improving on closeouts as a rotator

The third area that jumps out that Sexton needs to improve on next season is his closeouts as a rotator.

On-ball, Sexton has honestly gotten better at walling off drivers, and he’s shown better anticipation when it comes to pull-ups, and his contests in those instances have improved as compared to his first season.

To me, Sexton having a defensive rating of 117.0 thus far in 2019-20, per NBA.com, is somewhat misleading when looking at how Garland, who has struggled mightily on-ball and hasn’t been a whole better at getting through off-ball screens to contest, has had a defensive rating of 113.8.

Anyhow, it is clear that Sexton still has room to improve in regards to his closeouts as a team defender/rotator to shooters. That’s understandable for a player that’s only 21 years of age, and especially with how only the Washington Wizards have had a worse defensive rating to this point this season.

Considering Sexton has shown positive signs in terms of as being a strong side stunter off-ball to opposing drivers, though, I’d think that with more film study/experience, coupled with Sexton’s recovery speed/quickness, that he could get much better even next season when it comes to closeouts to shooters.

At any rate, Sexton only placing in the 34th percentile in terms of his primary defense against spot-ups in 2019-20, per Synergy Sports, has been underwhelming.

That being said, with Sexton being a tireless worker and with how he’s improved on-ball in deterring drivers/pull-ups, I’m hopeful he can improve in being more disciplined with his closeouts to shooters to deter drives off those after closing out too hard.

Also, I’d imagine he could deter shots more if he’s more timely/on-point with his contests. After all, even with him only being 6-foot-1, Sexton does have a plus 6-foot-6 wingspan.