Cavs: When the opportunities arise, Collin Sexton is their closer

Collin Sexton is off to a roaring start for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Thus far in this 2020-21 campaign, Collin Sexton has been dynamite, and has further solidified himself as the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ primary scorer. The third-year guard, who led Cleveland in scoring with 20.8 points per game last season, has carried how he closed out his Year 2 forward.

In the 2020 portion for the Cavs, in what ultimately was cut short due to the novel coronavirus pandemic/Cleveland not being an Orlando bubble team, Sexton had 23.6 points per outing, in what was his last 32 games active. He hit 49.2 percent of his shots in that span, and hit 44.9 percent of his three-point attempts, also.

And again, Collin has seemingly taken that further so far in the early portion of this season. Sexton currently has averaged 26.0 points per contest on a scorching 63.6 percent true shooting, and he’s hit 55.0 percent of his 3.3 triple attempts early on.

At this point, we know that Sexton is a big-time bucket-getter, and his stronger frame, in which he also took a step further over the extended offseason, has aided him as a finisher. Plus, in the transition game, in particular, Sexton has been so dangerous; he’s currently third in the NBA in total transition points, and as placed in the 73rd percentile, per Synergy Sports.

But as Collin has shown when opportunities arise, he has the makings of Cleveland’s closer, too, which is proving he’s capable of getting it done in crunch time.

Sexton is clearly the Cavs’ go-to closer.

At times against the Detroit Pistons, though I will give the Cavs defense there props as well, such as Andre Drummond, and Darius Garland made his mark, Sexton came up big in that double overtime victory. In addition, in Cleveland’s win at the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, in which they were at one point down by 15 and he himself had some struggles through three, Sexton was big in the fourth quarter.

Sexton, who leads the Cavaliers in fourth quarter scoring, to no surprise, with 6.2 points per game in that period, had 13 points in that closing period. Now, the Cavs defense was huge in their comeback, and Larry Nance Jr., Dante Exum and the defense had 10 steals. Exum seemingly frustrated Trae Young some, too.

But swinging back, though, in crucial possessions down the stretch, Sexton continued to prove when opportunities arise, he’s the Cavs’ closer. Now, ball movement is crucial for Cleveland in a general sense, and that helped Sexton at times, too. We know that, clearly, is big for the Cavs’ success.

Albeit games such as the Pistons one, to a large extent, and that Hawks one did show that Sexton, when opportunities arise, is Cleveland’s go-to crunch time scorer. I could foresee Kevin Porter Jr. and Kevin Love, for example, when both are back in the fold, helping Cleveland in that regard, too, though, as fans would attest to.

However, Sexton’s all-around scoring polish leads me to believe that he’s Cleveland’s go-to closer looking onward. His ability to take advantage of bigs in the pull-up game in pick-and-roll, the way Sexton can get to the free throw line, and the strides he’s continued to make from deep, in crunch time, too, play into him being the Cavs’ go-to closing time scorer.

For added context, just in a general sense, Sexton has placed in the 84th percentile in PnR scoring, per Synergy, and he’s fifth in the NBA in total PnR scoring.

And again, I’m not discounting Cleveland showing positive signs as far as ball movement, but in some instances, if Sexton has it rolling down the stretch, getting him the ball if matchups are proving favorable, and letting him work could be the move. That’s more so in the last few minutes if he has it going, as it did versus Atlanta.

This go-ahead triple with 27.9 seconds left just showcased how Sexton is proving to be the go-to closer for the Wine and Gold, too.

This kid is off to a heck of a start, and him taking over in clutch time plays into Sexton continuing to demonstrate he’s an ascending player for the Cavs, and that his leadership role on the floor is likely only becoming more prominent.

And Sexton showing he can take over down the stretch is a nice development for Cleveland, when push comes to shove and Cleveland believes they can take advantage of favorable matchups for him.