Cavs: Collin Sexton’s going to have opponents spooked next season

Collin Sexton is ready for a big-time year 3 for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Last season, Collin Sexton fully leaned into what would turn out to be a primary option role for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Even with a mostly healthy Kevin Love, the then-second-year guard led Cleveland in scoring with 20.8 points per game, and leading into the NBA’s novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, Sexton was on quite the tear.

Leading into what would ultimately be the end of 2019-20, Sexton averaged 23.6 points per outing in his last 32 games on 49.2 percent shooting. He hit 44.9 percent of his 4.9 three-point attempts per contest then, too.

Looking at next season, factoring in Sexton’s growth in becoming a much more polished three-level scorer, I’d expect him to keep that arrow pointing up.

That’s especially in relation to how Sexton displayed the capability to change speeds off-the-bounce in year 2, him improving as a finisher and him showing growth as a passer as his past season progressed.

Plus, even after getting bigger/stronger leading into his past season, Sexton over what’s been an extended offseason, actually gained 10-15 pounds of good weight, as of heading into the Cavs voluntary in-market bubble team workouts last month. That should only aid Collin as a finisher/driver alongside others such as Love, Darius Garland, Cedi Osman, Kevin Porter Jr. and others, and in on-ball defense, of which he made strides in year 2.

Again, next season for Collin, though, it’s clear that he’s not going to surprise us with his efforts, based on the growth he demonstrated last season, and as a scorer, most notably. Anyhow, with Saturday being Halloween, Sexton came to mind to me, with how he’ll be striking fear into opposing defenders.

Sexton’s going to have Cavs opponents spooked next season.

Next season, with how he was on such a tear leading into the past hiatus, Sexton’s more than capable of taking another step forward. His tireless work ethic, the change of speeds he displayed in year 2, and his bigger, stronger frame will make him even tougher to account for.

Him hitting a robust 38.0 percent of his three-point attempts in 2019-20 further solidified the threat he’ll pose now as a perimeter shooter, too. That’s along with him hitting 42.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot triple attempts last season, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

That should only aid him more as a driver and pull-up shooter in the mid-range area as well. In the pick-and-roll ball handling sense, I feel sorry for opposing bigs at times switched out on to Sexton, too. That for them could be something out of a nightmare, honestly, with his raw speed, and the ever-expanding tool box he has.

Lastly, in the transition game, the “hulked up” Sexton is going to having opponents feeling very, very spooked, while on the Halloween subject here. Opposing perimeter defenders matched up on to him in standard matchups, let alone cross-matching? Psshh. That will have Collin licking his chops, like a werewolf on the hunt.

Also, both in settled offense and in the open floor, I’d only expect to see more jams from Sexton, whether that be off-the-bounce or, given his cutting improvements, at times in that way, too. And I’m not saying it’ll happen every other game, but you better believe there will be more victims at the rim, folks. Hey there, Wendell Carter Jr.

So to further drive it home, this hard-changing Young Bull is going to have opposing defenders spooked next season. Collin Sexton is coming back with a vengeance, and for opposing defenses, that’s got to be frightening game-to-game.

And I can just picture Sexton with villainous attentions, mixed in with a Joker-esque laugh in the process.