Leaving all bias aside Collin Sexton needs to be offered a sizeable contract extension by the Cleveland Cavaliers, despite teammates reportedly being at times frustrated with ball dominance/lack of passing from him. The same report from Joe Vardon of The Athletic (subscription required), though it was mostly about Kevin Love, did state that opponents supposedly taunt other Cavs players because Sexton won’t pass them the ball.
Sexton isn’t a point guard but he’s definitely capable of distributing when the team needs him to as he’s shown to do on multiple accounts.
Coming off a season where he averaged 20.8 points a game last season to 24.3 points per game this year, he should also be in consideration for the Most Improved Player of The Year award as well. Cleveland’s overall season turnout won’t lead to that being the case, though.
But this season has certainly been a breakout season for Sexton and I can only see him continue to get better as his career progresses and headed into this offseason.
So what have been a few takeaways that have jumped out from his play in Year 3?
We’ll touch on those three takeaways here, from my perspective, for Sexton for the Cavs.
The first takeaway relates to his mentality.
Takeaway #1: Sexton’s aggressiveness went to another level in 2020-21 for the Cavs, and he was again efficient
In his third season, Sexton became even more aggressive, and how he went about getting his production shouldn’t be discounted. He attacked the paint consistently, and while his three-point shooting had taken a bit of a dip, it only went to 37.1 percent. He’s usually pretty efficient when he has his head up and he averaged a career high 47.5 percent shooting from the field this season.
The team is counting on him to take over, which is another thing we’ve seen from Sexton this season. He looks for the ball and to score when the team needs it the most, and he isn’t afraid to take the game-winning shot, but one could also say he is willing to trust his teammates a lot more.
And with the way teammates have often rallied around Sexton, it’s tough to take much from that Vardon report, to echo what KJG’s Dan Gilinsky expressed.
Guys were complimentary of Sexton throughout, and efforts such as his first one versus the Brooklyn Nets this season were an example of why that’s been the case. That one ended in a second overtime as well as Sexton scoring a career-high 42 points as well as scoring 20 straight points in both overtimes; he had 22 points in those OTs.