Cavs: 5 burning questions for 2021-22 NBA season

Cavs: 5 burning questions – Is Collin Sexton worth a max contract?

Collin Sexton, like the rest of the 2018 NBA Draft class, is currently up for a contract extension. With one year remaining on his rookie deal, Sexton can sign an extension prior to the start of the season on October 19th. If he and the Cavs don’t come to an agreement by then, he will hit restricted free agency next summer.

As it almost always is, money appears to be the hang-up. After increasing his scoring average to 24.3 points per game last season Sexton can point to pure historical precedent for players that young to average as many points. He was a top-20 scorer in the league as just a third-year player; if that’s not worth a max contract, he might say, what is?

In the end it certainly might be, but there are questions about Sexton’s overall game and scalability. Does Sexton elevate the players around him, or is he simply scoring on his own? That’s a nuanced question, but if Sexton can’t build out his play to be more dangerous off-ball, to be more prolific creating advantage situations for his teammates, to survive on defense, then it becomes a difficult proposition to pay him what he will want to earn.

It is absolutely in the realm of possibility that Sexton shows such improvement this season. The best-case scenario for this year is that he not only continues to develop as a scoring threat but learns how to leverage the attention he is getting to put teammates in a position to succeed. If he does, then next summer the Cavs may happily ink him to that maximum contract. If not, it might be a tense start to the summer as the two sides figure out the next steps.