Cavs: Pick-and-roll passing growth would go a long way for Collin Sexton

Collin Sexton is such a talented scorer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he did show positive signs as a passer in year 2.

Collin Sexton, after what he showcased last season in the all-around scoring sense and leading the Cleveland Cavaliers in that realm with 20.8 points per game, should be Cleveland’s primary option offensively next season. Sexton puts so much pressure on opposing defenses as a three-level bucket-getter, and he made strides off-ball in 2019-20, too.

Sexton does need to show further progression as a passer, though. Even while that’s not Sexton’s primary focus, and that’s just fine, he does need to show more in that regard for Cleveland in the near future.

Sexton had 3.0 assists per game this now-past season for the Cavaliers, which was not earth-shattering by any means. But with him primarily playing in the 2 spot with the drafting of Darius Garland anyway, that wasn’t as awful as it seemed many Cavs fans painted it out to be.

Nonetheless, Sexton does need to improve as a passer, generally. He’s not likely going to be a primary playmaker in the passing/running team sense often, but it was encouraging to have seen Sexton initiate more ball-swings as his second season progressed more, and/or hit some occasional lobs.

The key, really, was Collin Sexton demonstrating more passing willingness in what was more so the last two months of 2019-20, give or take, especially. In his last 26 games of year 2 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sexton had a better 4.0 assists per contest.

Looking at what will be his third season coming up, it would pay dividends for Collin to improve as a passer in the pick-and-roll, though.

Pick-and-roll passing growth would go a long way for Sexton and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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With the capability he showed in year 2 of changing speeds off-the-bounce, that was crucial for Sexton in the pick-and-roll scoring sense. The Young Bull placed in the 66th percentile in PnR scoring situations, per Synergy Sports, and it’s evident that in that area, Sexton is only going to get better in coming years with his change of pace paired with his acceleration.

Although for Collin next season, pick-and-roll passing growth would again, go a long way for him and make him even more difficult to account for as a PnR scorer for the Cavs.

Sexton did again demonstrate passing growth in the last two or so months of 2019-20, and via drive-and-kicks to pieces such as Garland, Kevin Love, Kevin Porter Jr. and Larry Nance Jr., in particular.

Next season, though, and even while I’d expect the aforementioned Porter to handle primary playmaking duties a good amount when Garland is off the floor, whether or not Sexton is on the floor, Sexton finding rollers more so next season in the PnR passing sense would be impactful.

Sexton hitting some skip feeds when bigs hedge hard to him in the PnR with off-ball defenders keying in to help in anticipation of Sexton drives and/or pull-ups, too, would help the Cavs offense at times throughout games, along with those occasional pocket feeds.

It’d be meaningful to see Sexton hit some more lobs at times to pieces such as Andre Drummond, Nance and/or a bit to KPJ or perhaps Alfonzo McKinnie operating in the PnR as well, which could help open up even more floaters for him to counter that.

Albeit in the general PnR/on-ball sense, I do foresee opponents doubling Sexton more from this point forward, so some of these skip feeds and/or lobs out of the PnR won’t be there.

Even so, Sexton still should have instances throughout games operating out of the PnR when he’ll have ample time to hit open looks leading to quality shots for others, and if he finds those more often, it will only aid him as a scorer the more he plays.

Now I’m not saying I don’t want Collin taking advantage of switchout situations when those are obviously in-play for him and the cross-matched situation is there. But if Sexton can hit rollers/lob threats a bit more and/or look for spot-up feeds more frequently to pieces such as Garland, Love, KPJ and Dylan Windler (who will hopefully be mostly healthy) he’ll be even more formidable on-ball in the PnR.

Clearly, pick-and-roll passing growth would be invaluable for Sexton and the Cleveland Cavaliers.