Cavs: How Collin Sexton and Kyrie Irving compare through three seasons

Cavs: How Collin Sexton and Kyrie Irving compare through three seasons – Offense

Scoring

This is the area where the two players are almost identical. Both Kyrie Irving and Collin Sexton are talented scoring threats, and putting the ball in the basket (a crucial part of winning a game, it must be said) is the greatest strength for each. Through three seasons Irving averaged 20.7 points per game, while Sexton put up 20.2 points per game.

Irving did this on slightly more volume, hitting 44.7 percent of his shots from the field as compared to 45.8. Accordingly, Sexton’s true shooting percentage is just a hair higher than Irving’s, 55.1 over 54.8. That being said, Sexton is also playing in a league where the average shooting percentage is higher, and when adjusted for era Irving jumps back out ahead, just barely.

Both had a similar shot distribution as well. Irving hit 1.7 3-pointers, 5.9 2-pointers and 3.9 free throws per game to put together his 20.7 points, while Sexton had a nearly identical 1.5 3-pointers, 6.0 2-pointers and 4.4 free throws. This area is the most closely aligned for the two young guards, and the best point in Sexton’s favor that he can become an All-Star level scorer.

Passing

Kyrie Irving dominates Sexton as a passer and playmaker. That’s not because of Sexton moving off-ball in his third season, either, as Sexton averaged just three assists per game as a point guard, increasing that number in his third year to 4.4. Irving, meanwhile, never averaged fewer than 5.4 assists per game (his mark as a rookie) and averaged 5.8 over the entire first three seasons.

Accordingly, Irving’s assist percentage nearly doubled up Sexton, 33.2 percent to Sexton’s 17.5 percent. That means that when on the court Irving was driving scoring for his teammates twice as much as Sexton. That might speak to the talent of their respective teammates, but anyone looking at the roster on Irving’s team would not conclude his compatriots were better than Sexton.

Advanced Metrics

In this area Kyrie Irving again shines, putting up elite numbers even though he was on losing teams. His PER (player efficiency rating, invented by John Hollinger) was 20.9 over his first three seasons, as opposed to Sexton’s 15.2. He totaled 12.2 offensive win shares to Sexton’s 4.7, despite playing 26 fewer games; in essence Irving’s offensive impact seemed to contribute to the Cavs winning nearly three times as much as Sexton’s.

Box Plus-Minus (BPM), which uses a player’s box score stats to estimate how they played compared to a league-average player, shows even more of a divide. Irving averaged a positive 4.1 Offensive BPM, finishing in the top 10 in the league in that statistic as both a rookie and a sophomore, and 16th in his third year. Sexton, on the other hand, was a positive 0.1 in that same statistic, with his best season ranking 59th in the league.

Advantage: Irving by a mile