Cavs: 3 players who might not finish the season in Cleveland – Collin Sexton
All summer long Collin Sexton has had to deal with trade rumors swirling around him. He is a talented young player who can absolutely score the basketball, but he is also screaming towards a significant pay raise and the Cavs might not want to sign the check.
Points pay, and that’s both a problem for Cleveland and a lure to other teams. Sexton was a top-20 scorer in the league last season and is only 22 years old. His camp will accordingly ask for something close to the max. Should an already expensive Cleveland team just hold their nose and offer such a deal?
Perhaps they should, but if they don’t want to the time to trade him is now. They could wait and go into next year’s offseason to try and sign and trade him elsewhere, like the Chicago Bulls did with Cleveland and Lauri Markkanen, but the return at that point would be less than they could get in-season.
One key reason for that is the team adding him would have to hard cap themselves to add him in a sign and trade next offseason, a problem for contenders who might need to stray into the luxury tax. Another reason is that if they believe in Sexton’s upside, by acquiring him on his rookie contract he remains eligible for a supermax extension down the line. While that could mean a future overpay, it is also a tool in a team’s belt in order to entice star players to stay.
Whether the Cavs decide to pay Sexton or not, their team is getting expensive and they have to start finding ways to clear salary. That could be by cutting a player like Kevin Love or moving young talent en route to a major payday. Whatever the route, any of these three players could finish the season somewhere other than Cleveland.