Cavs: 2 key ways Lauri Markkanen will help Collin Sexton’s growth

#1: Markkanen’s presence should help Sexton find more kickouts/skips for the Cavs

Markkanen has had injury issues in recent years with Chicago, and that, and some changes around him didn’t exactly lead to a boost for him in the past two seasons, especially, from a developmental standpoint.

But it’s clear that Markkanen is a heck of a catch-and-shoot threat, and while Kevin Love, when healthy, has helped Sexton some with his feel for finding kickouts/improving his willingness on drives to see those, it’s tough with Love’s health.

Markkanen has again had injuries too in the past few seasons, although Love was active in just 25 games last season because of a right calf injury and he seems likely to have a reduced role with the Cavs from here.

On the plus side, the 24-year-old Markkanen, even with possibly coming off the bench, with Evan Mobley in mind, should receive a ton of minutes still. And his perimeter shooting presence should help Sexton again with his growth in finding more skips/kickouts.

He improved on that last year, and did have 4.4 assists per contest in 2020-21, but Sexton now having a 7-foot stretch big like Markkanen could allow him to further develop in that way more in coming years. Markkanen is a player with very deep range, even for a big, and last season, he knocked in 40.2 percent of his 5.8 three-point attempts per game.

Sexton could feasibly be able to show more development in hitting skips and help have more impactful ball reversals with a pure shooter like Markkanen aiding Cleveland’s spacing when he’s in there as well, which shouldn’t be discounted.

And even with Sexton more so being a secondary playmaker mostly, that shooting presence of Markkanen, who is capable as a movement shooter too, should help open up Sexton for pull-ups himself. Or it could help him find cutters with the attention Markkanen could draw off-ball, conversely.