Cavs: Collin Sexton’s efficiency has been unreal this season

Thus far this season, Collin Sexton‘s Year 3 has been something special for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s kept how he closed out last season, in which he averaged 24.2 points in his last 25 games of 2019-20, going this year to this point.

Just past this season’s quarter poll for the Cavs, Sexton, who led them last season in scoring at 20.8 points per game overall, has had 24.6 points per contest.

And although it did end out at 10 games ultimately, and he did miss a five-game span due to a left ankle sprain, Sexton did break/set the Cavs record for consecutive 20-plus-point games to begin a season.

What has been truly something else, though, has been how Sexton has gone about his business for the Wine and Gold; he’s been so efficient with his bucket-getting.

Sexton’s efficiency for the Cavs this season has been unreal.

This stat was heading into Friday’s game at the New York Knicks, via Cavs Notes.

Before that last Cavs game, which was a rough loss, Sexton was currently the only NBA player averaging 25.0-plus points per game, while shooting 50.0-plus percent from the field and 45.0-plus percent from three-point range.

Now, that is no longer for Collin, but he’s still been uber-efficient. Currently, Sexton’s shooting 50.4 percent from the field and is still hitting 43.9 percent of his deep attempts.

Sexton’s three-point shooting volume of 4.1 attempts per contest is not going to be, nor has been, that of other elite scorers around the league, so that plays into it. But his overall scoring tool box has made him so difficult to account for and will only continue to moving forward.

Sexton has routinely been able to get to his sweet spots as a scorer, and him further progressing with his change of pace off-the-bounce and in pick-and-roll has enabled him to thrive in the pull-up game.

So far this season, with the space he’s been able to create off-the-bounce and with the speed/quickness he possesses, he’s been able to take advantage of opposing bigs dropping in the PnR and he’s been able to connect via pull-ups and/or floaters/push shots. Sexton’s hit 51.1 percent of his shots from 10-16 feet out, on a frequency of 18.7 percent, which has been incredible, honestly.

Plus, him taking more strides with his frame has only aided him as a driver, both in settled offense and in the open floor. At this point, Sexton’s had a robust 5.0 transition points per contest, and has placed in the 67th percentile in those situations, per Synergy Sports.

Additionally, in the off-ball sense, though, Collin has grown more and more comfortable when those opportunities have been there, with the likes of Darius Garland, Cedi Osman, Isaac Okoro, Larry Nance Jr. and/or others have been at the controls. Of course, injuries have played into it sometimes not being the case as much.

In any case, Sexton has continued to make opponents pay for helping off of him, which has generally been a bad idea; on catch-and-shoot three-point attempts, he’s knocked in 41.7 percent of those in Year 3, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

Moreover, while I understand the overall shooting splits for him will come down over the course of the season, just in totality with his splits thus far, the efficiency for Collin has been unreal.

Again, I know he doesn’t take nearly as many triples as other current elite scorers, such as Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Stephen Curry and/or others, but what Sexton’s been able to do has been truly something else.

And along with the bucket-getting, him having 4.3 assists per contest to this point, especially in a more regular secondary playmaking sense, has been nice to see, too. The passing for Collin is certainly coming along, and that will only help him more as a scorer.

Now again, that aforementioned efficiency of all three regarding the 25.0-plus/50.0-plus shooting/45.0-plus percent three-point shooting, is no longer with all three, though. Albeit with how Sexton has improved leaps and bounds with his approach/feel, I wouldn’t expect him to ever be inefficient for large stretches.

That sort of thing is relative, but I’m not going to ever just gloss over what Sexton is doing in that sense, with how much defenses key in on him. Collin, so long as the Cavs are in postseason contention, will have a legitimate All-Star case.