Collin Sexton, Cavs don’t reach extension, but one shouldn’t overreact

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton is not a perfect player by any means, as he still has tunnel vision at times, needs to improve defensively, particularly from an off-ball sense, and he can play too fast here and there.

I get that Sexton needs to continue to show further growth as a secondary playmaker, attempt more three-point shots game-to-game, and demonstrate more viability off-ball.

Even while taking those things into account, while he’s often seemingly been a player whose production as a well-rounded scorer has been overlooked, the dude has improved year-to-year over three seasons, and guys of his ilk don’t grow on trees. He doesn’t deserve close to the amount of blame handed to him for Cleveland’s struggles as a team in recent seasons, which was more due to spacing, coaching changes and injury issues overall.

The 22-year-old had 24.3 points per outing last season, led Cleveland again in scoring, and even with some rough patches, did still knock in 37.1 percent of his three-point attempts.

While it appeared that given what he’s shown, Sexton could very well be extended before next season, though, him/his camp and the Cavs didn’t end up reaching an agreement, per a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com from Monday (subscription required). That was prior to the deadline on Monday at 6 PM for Sexton’s 2018 NBA Draft class.

This was a bit of a suprise, but one shouldn’t overreact; the Cavs could sign him next offseason in restricted free agency.

As we’ve alluded to, Sexton needs to continue to round out his game to help Cleveland’s growth as a team overall, and him showing more willingness to make extra passes as a driver and in transition can make a difference. Sexton showed noticeable progress last season as a secondary playmaker with 4.4 assists per outing, and with him primarily a secondary playmaker, that was meaningful.

Sexton, along with Darius Garland, must put more of an emphasis on getting up more threes this season/looking onward as well, when hitting on other areas for him to fully maximize his scoring potential.

I do believe we’ll see how play out for him and Garland, though, and the Cavs have reportedly been stressing for both to do so, and in that realm, Sexton has reportedly been working extensively on off-the-bounce threes. Hopefully in Year 4, that plays out and it can lead to him having even more of an impact as a driving and pull-up presence, to go with aiding him as a passer to an extent, too.

Anyway, so what’s the overarching takeaway from this? To me, it’s again not to overreact.

Per the aforementioned report from Fedor, Sexton was “initially hoping for a multi-year deal, north of $100 million,” based on his three-year production, and there were a number of offers/clauses discussed.

Fedor did also note in his report from there how the Cavs will look to let the market be set next offseason for Sexton, but touched on how only four clubs are projected to have cap space next offseason. He could potentially re-sign before a team next offseason makes an offer, too, though, and as Fedor stressed, the Cavs “want him around.”

I get that the extension agreement didn’t come, however, it’s telling that Cleveland believes Sexton is a crucial member of their core from here. That’s right along with Garland, Jarrett Allen, who they re-signed via five-year deal this offseason, Evan Mobley, seemingly Isaac Okoro, and Lauri Markkanen.

Sexton’s gotten better each season, and with other guys such as Mobley, Okoro and Allen, and at least for this season in Ricky Rubio to some degree, I do believe it can help him out defensively, to a noticable degree. And if he can improve in a team sense, that’d be noteworthy, frankly.

In any case, in a general sense, it’s evident that while Sexton has to keep improving, he’s proven to be a heck of a scorer, a far better shooter than one would’ve anticipated, and his drive/tireless work ethic helps set the right example for other guys.

These comments from Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, as noted by Fedor but one can view here, via Spencer Davies of Basketballnews.com, resonated with me, too. Even now after the two sides didn’t come to terms, it does still prove to me that the Cavs view Sexton in really high regard, and I’m confident that he’ll likely still be around for the long haul, albeit come next offseason now.

As we’ve hit on here, even with Sexton previously having been mentioned in trade rumors earlier in the offseason, we’re seemingly past that now. I wouldn’t anticipate those to ramp up that much with him set to be paid handsomely, one would assume, via restricted free agency next offseason, either.

And with what he means to the Cavaliers, both as a three-level scorer, improving secondary playmaker and off-ball player, and as an emerging leader by example, one shouldn’t be overreact to this news from Monday.

There were a number of others in his 2018 NBA Draft class that were extended, but I’d still expect him to be with the Cavs for the long haul, either way.