Cavs: Collin Sexton snubbed from Bleacher Report’s top 100, but primed to make it next year

As Bleacher Report released their top 100 players from 2019-20, Collin Sexton, often fitting the underdog label, was left out. The Cleveland Cavaliers guard is primed to make it after 2020-21, though.

Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey and Dan Favale recently released their top 100 NBA players for the 2019-2020 NBA season, and in terms of positional rankings previously throughout, their statistics for lineup data that were used came from Cleaning the Glass and Basketball Reference. On that top 100 list, though, there was a notable snub that jumped out to me as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

As Cavaliers fans looked to see if they had their guard make the top 100 after a much-improved season from his rookie year, he was left out of the list, his name only being mentioned in the “Just Missed the Cut” section.

For Collin Sexton, rankings mean absolutely nothing. Sexton averaged 20.8 points per game this season, averaging over 4.1 more per game than last season. Sexton had his assist numbers stay the same, but watching Sexton play, his playmaking took a leap. If there is one thing that Sexton haters across the world knocked him for last season and continue to do so now, it is being a point guard and not having good playmaking feel.

Yes, Sexton still has a lot of work to do in this category. That said, he was visually much improved in terms of his feel for hitting shooters via drive-and-kicks situations, and did force less shots in his second season.

He will only get better as he gets more time on the floor, too, and lets not discount that Sexton was most often playing the 2 guard in 2019-20 with Darius Garland as Cleveland’s lead playmaker often.

The number 100 player on this list is Donte DiVincenzo. With all due respect, I believe it is safe to say that Sexton is more valuable to any team than DiVincenzo.

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DiVincenzo averaged 7.3 rebounds per game and a 1.4 steals per game, making him a valuable asset on defense, something that I believe can be very hard to find in today’s league.

DiVincenzo is a good rebounding guard as well, and fits well into the Milwaukee Bucks’ fast-paced attack in both the passing and shooting perspective.

Albeit with the constant pressure Sexton puts on opposing defenses, I just believe he’s the better player. As the list goes on, there are a handful of guards that I believe Sexton is just better than.

Although people love to joke around about the most underrated player in any league or the most under-appreciated player, I strongly believe Sexton could be very high on one of those lists. One of my favorite things about Sexton’s improvement from his rookie year to now is consistency.

Sexton improved from 43.0 percent shooting overall to 47.2 percent, something that can change a game for me. While there was still a good amount of choppy play to his game, overall this year we saw a much smoother version of Sexton, and he was showing more and more improvement later into the year, and his play will only go up from here.

Cavs center Andre Drummond has previously stated he’ll be picking up his $28.8 million player option and will be staying with the Cavs, another thing that will help Sexton flourish even more.

Based on the small sample of games that they were able to play together, for next season, I believe that Sexton will become an even better playmaker by being able to play under the veteran presence of Drummond on the interior for dump-offs. Drummond was #88 on Bailey and Favale’s list, too.

Shooters such as Kevin Love (#51 on the list), Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. will only aid Sexton’s growth in that realm as well.

Moreover, I believe that it is safe to say that the Cleveland Cavaliers need to be done with guards when it comes to the NBA draft and focus on other areas. According to the agent of prospect Killian Hayes of the BBL’s Ratiopharm Ulm, Cleveland has expressed little to no interest in drafting a guard, but that could be just a smoke screen, as we’re ways away from a mid-October draft.

Again, though, even if Garland doesn’t have a better sophomore season, the Cavs still have Sexton and the exciting Porter Jr. to play together and grow as a solid duo that compliments each other well. I’d rather the Cavs focus on the defensive end, and wing Isaac Okoro of the Auburn Tigers comes to mind in that regard, of whom our own Dan Gilinsky hit on Saturday.

Anyway, in relation to 2020-21, Sexton is hungry, and it’s only a matter of time before he makes the top 100 list from Bleacher Report, among others. There’s a high possibility of that after next season and he could very well be a constant on those going forward.