Cavs: Collin Sexton’s tweet shows he’s more than ready for 2020-21
By Dan Gilinsky
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton’s work ethic is undeniable.
Collin Sexton lives and breathes basketball. His tireless work ethic has fueled success for him at every level it seems, and heading into his third season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, that should continue to propel him after how he closed out his second year.
In his last 32 games active, Sexton had 23.6 points per outing on 49.2 percent shooting, and hit 44.9 percent from three-point territory. Unfortunately for Sexton, he and the Cavs 2019-20 campaign ended then due to them not being an Orlando squad after the league’s novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, because of COVID-19 concerns, clearly.
On the plus side for Collin and other Cavs young pieces such as Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr., the next upcoming season is around the corner. That’s with the league/players union agreeing on the proposed Dec. 22 start date to 2020-21/the two sides reportedly coming to terms on an amended collective bargaining agreement.
Of course, for a number of teams, the start to the upcoming season is going to be a really tight window following the rapid offseason format, with the 2020 NBA Draft on Wednesday/free agency to come shortly thereafter.
Albeit for the Cavs, to a large degree, I’m sure they’ve been itching to return to game action for so long, with the Wine and Gold’s last game having been way back on March 10. That was a then-close loss to the Chicago Bulls shortly before the league’s hiatus.
In any case, what’s clear as day to me, and what stood out from a recent clip, is that the aforementioned Sexton will be more than ready for next season.
A tweet from Sexton shows he’ll be beyond ready for the Cavs.
This tweet from Sexton (with video credit given to @JalenRawww) emphasizes how he’s been putting the work in ahead of this next season. And him putting on 10-15 pounds of muscle throughout what’s been an extended offseason for the Cavs will pay dividends for Collin.
https://twitter.com/CollinSexton02/status/1326660187638403072?s=20
Heading into year 3, knowing that Sexton has had laser focus over the course of this offseason, it again shows to me that he’s poised for a big year.
Sexton clearly leaned into a primary scoring role as last season progressed, and after leading the Cavs with 20.8 points per outing in 2019-20, Sexton building on that next season seems realistic.
Granted, Sexton did demonstrate himself making strides in other areas, too, as he displayed growth as an off-ball player/cutter, and though it wasn’t necessarily proven game-in and game-out, Sexton grew as a secondary playmaker.
Him having a better 4.2 assists per outing (as compared to 3.0 on the year) in his last 20 games of year 2 was encouraging in that realm. Additionally, while Sexton needs to be more competent off-ball as a rotator possession-to-possession/improve in navigating through off-ball screens, his on-ball defensive play got better as his second season wore on.
That’s even though a defensive rating of 117.0 on the season didn’t necessarily show that, and I give Sexton some slack with him often defending 2’s on-ball, albeit Cleveland feasibly adding a high level defensive wing such as Isaac Okoro in the upcoming draft would help.
Anyhow, Sexton’s above tweet from Wednesday again shows that he will be and has been ready for the 2020-21 season with his maniacal work ethic and this extended offseason. Larry Nance Jr., based on a recent tweet about the Dec. 1 start date to training camp, is in that same boat, too, along with I’d imagine others.
dark. Next. Collin Sexton was likely rated low in B/R's Under-23 Fantasy Draft
Moreover, Sexton I’m sure will be counting down the days to the start of his third Cavs campaign, of which will be right near or on that Dec. 22 start date for the NBA in general.