Why Collin Sexton should come off the Cavs bench next season

Collin Sexton is one of the best young players in the league, and prior to this season, Bleacher Report had him as the 25th-best under 25 player, which was solid. His scoring prowess makes him one of the best young players in the league. Last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sexton scored the 18th-most points per game, ahead of players such as Brandon Ingram, Paul George, and DeMar DeRozan.

Considering Sexton is 6’1” and playing at the shooting guard position, he shot the ball very efficiently, shooting it at a 47.5% clip from the field and 37.1% from behind the arc. Yes, his scoring numbers are elite for anyone, not just a young player, but other than that, what can he do?

In my opinion, his role would be best coming off of the bench next season for the Cavs, if he returns in free agency. I originally had him as the Cavs’ projected starting 2 for next season, but I have to update that.

Some people might disagree with me, considering the offensive firepower he brings to Cleveland. Yes, this is definitely true, but in my opinion, his multiple negatives outweigh his singular positive. Let’s take a look and see what I mean.

Advanced Statistics

Let’s flash back to Sexton’s rookie season, where he made All-Rookie Second Team. He averaged 16.7 points and 3.0 assists per night, playing all 82 games that season. For a rookie, those numbers seem great! Sure, his assist numbers weren’t the best for a guard, but that’s understandable. Point guards coming into the NBA usually have a hard time adjusting.

However, advanced stats that season hated Sexton, as he had a -8.2 plus-minus that season, only behind Cedi Osman and Kevin Knox. A negative 8.2 plus-minus per game, multiply that by 82 for all the games he played that season, and you get yourself -672.4.

Cumulatively, his plus-minus ranked the worst total plus-minus for a rookie in NBA history, and also ranked 5th-worst for any player all-time, according to StatMuse. So yeah, behind the good numbers, Sexton was not very good in his rookie season.

Without Sexton in the lineup, between 2018 and 2021, the Cavaliers had an offensive rating of 104.2, compared to a 108.0 with him. However, the defensive rating is terrible with Sexton on the floor, with it being a 117.1 between those years, and it being 110.5 without him in those years. So yeah, Sexton is not a good defender.

Let’s look at Sexton’s passing from last year, considering he didn’t play many games this season. He averaged 4.4 assists, a career-high for a season. But, his assist-to-turnover ratio was very poor for a guard, having a 1.57 assist/turnover ratio.

With players who played at least 10 minutes per game and at least 10 games, he was 10th-best on the team in that statistic. So yeah, Sexton is not the best passer in the world. Also, to make matters worse, he had a net rating of -9.2.

To put it nicely, Sexton’s advanced stats don’t really show anything good.