The explanation for the Cleveland Cavaliers protecting Sexton: His proven scoring ability
The explanation for the Cavaliers protecting Sexton is a pretty simple one. Sexton is a bucket-getter in the truest form, and the constant pressure he puts on opposing defenses is seen throughout games.
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Yes, ideally, Sexton will develop more in the passing sense, but the scoring element he provides has solidified him being a key piece for the Cavs going forward.
Sexton led the Wine and Gold in scoring in 2019-20 with 20.8 points per outing, and that was with Kevin Love being active in 56 of 65 games. In Sexton’s last 32 games of year two, he had 23.6 points per outing and hit 44.9 percent of his three-point looks, too.
Sexton’s tireless work ethic has led to him continuously showing that he’s a highly capable three-point shooter, especially off-the-catch, and through two seasons, he’s hit 39.2 percent of his three-point attempts.
That should help him going forward as a driver, too, and Sexton demonstrating the ability to change speeds on-ball in year two was a really encouraging sign for his creation outlook in the mid-range/on floaters in coming years.
Somewhat in that realm, Sexton is a player that is very difficult to account for, given his all-around scoring skill set, and while Sexton again needs to improve his feel as a passer, I can’t discount his consistent scoring output.
Through two seasons, he’s far exceeded my expectations in that area, and while he does need to get better in the team/rotating and/or off-screen sense, Sexton did show growth on-ball defensively in 2019-20.
Him getting stronger before last season paid off in allowing him to prevent drivers from moving him out of position more so as well. Along with that, Sexton did show improvement as a stunter on to drivers, which played into him putting up 1.0 steals per game in his second season, as compared to 0.5 as a rookie.
While I did consider Darius Garland, because of his better playmaking instincts, and deep shooting potential both off-the-bounce and off-the-catch, Sexton is more of a proven commodity at this juncture.
Next up, we’ll take a look at why I chose for the Cavs to protect Porter in this hypothetical scenario.