Cavs member’s comments about Collin Sexton are right on the money

Collin Sexton has solidified himself as a key piece for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Collin Sexton had an alright rookie season for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018-19 with 16.7 points per game, but it did have a tough start and defensively he really struggled. While Sexton closed out his first year strong from a scoring perspective and his playmaking did improve a bit, it was somewhat unclear how Sexton would follow it up in year 2.

To his credit, Sexton took a significant leap forward, and fully leaned into primarily a 2 guard role with the arrival of Darius Garland, albeit Cleveland needs better defensive pieces around those two to have their pairing be viable in coming years for long stretches.

Either way, though, it’s evident that Sexton solidified himself as a key piece for the Cavaliers thanks to his 2019-20 play. Even with the all-around shooting and mid-post presence of Kevin Love mostly healthy, which wasn’t case in 2018-19, Sexton led Cleveland with 20.8 points per game.

Sexton did so on a better true shooting rate of 56.0, as compared to his rookie campaign of 52.0, too. After him hitting 40.2 percent of his three-point attempts as a rookie, Sexton also hit a healthy 38.0 percent of his deep ball tries in his second season.

Sexton did still take his share of mid-range attempts, but those were much more in-rhythm in year 2 and he wasn’t really passing up open catch-and-shoot triples, which was often the case pre-All-Star break in his rookie year. In Sexton’s last 33 games, he hit 44.4 percent of his 4.8 three-point attempts per outing, and averaged 23.5 points per game, too.

While Sexton does need to improve defensively, and in the team sense especially I believe, though he did show positive strides on-ball in year 2 and as a stunter to drivers which led in large part to 1.0 steals per game, he took a big leap forward in 2019-20.

In that realm, a Cleveland Cavaliers member’s comments were right on the money about Sexton.

One member of the Cavs has been so pleased with how Sexton has done thus far for the Wine and Gold, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor and h/t Cavaliers Nation’s Justin Benjamin.

"“Collin has exceeded all expectations,” one member of the organization told cleveland.com. “He’s been incredible for us. A true cultural leader.”"

These comments by that member of the Cavs regarding Sexton were truly right on the money from my perspective.

Thanks in large part to Sexton’s tireless work ethic, also of which Fedor alluded to, Sexton improved as a finisher this now-past season for Cleveland, and his ability to change speeds helped him get to his spots under control more. That paid off for floaters and driving finishes, of which so did Sexton getting stronger heading into year 2.

Along those lines as a finisher, Sexton had 23 dunks in 65 games, leading into the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus and what would ultimately be the Cavs’ end to 2019-20; he had only seven through 82 in 2018-19. Who could forget this jam all over Chicago Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. back early in the season?

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A reaction of “AHOOOHHH-MY!” was right then from Cavs play-by-play announcer John Michael.

There were a number of instances of Sexton getting it done in a big way for the Cavs as a scorer in his second season, and Fedor was spot-on for highlighting Sexton’s career-high 41-point explosion against the Boston Celtics in early March.

Sexton had six assists in a narrow loss in that one, too, and you can view more on that and two other awesome games from Collin in a piece by KJG’s Robbie DiPaola at this link.

Moreover, that member of the Cavs’ comments regarding Sexton were again, right on the money, and he has solidified himself as one of Cleveland’s best and still most promising players.

Fedor noting how Sexton has been in conversation with Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff about “polishing his off-the-ball game,” via spot-ups/off screen shooting is encouraging to hear about, too.

Granted, Sexton did improve in terms of the catch-and-shoot game some last season, and while we didn’t see it a bunch throughout games, Sexton did show glimpses of efficient off screen shooting in 2019-20. Hopefully he can build on that in 2020-21.

Fedor then touching on how Sexton does need to show more growth defensively and as a passer is fair, and hopefully next season, Sexton can keep improving on him showing more willingness to find dump-offs and initiate productive ball-swings after kickouts, which he demonstrated more leading into the hiatus.

Fedor did note that about better passing, too, though, but either way, for feasibly a secondary playmaker, if Sexton can put up 3.5 or 4.0 or so assists per outing going forward and make more extra passes even, that will pay dividends for him as an all-around scorer.

In any case, those comments by that member of the Cavs in relation to Sexton were right on the money, and with Sexton’s truly rare commitment to the game and love for getting the work in, he’ll seemingly have an ever-growing leadership role by example.

Fedor was also spot-on in saying how Sexton is a “cornerstone of Cleveland’s rebuild.”

I can’t wait to see the Young Bull kill it in year 3 with the Cleveland Cavaliers.