King James Gospel
Fansided

Regrading the Cavs’ entire 2021 offseason move by move

By Josh Cornelissen

Collin Sexton, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
Collin Sexton, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
7 of 8
Next
Cavs
Collin Sexton, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images /

Regrading the Cavs’ entire 2021 offseason: Waiting on Sexton extension

When a first-round rookie on a standard rookie-scale contract completes his third season in the league, he becomes eligible for an extension that will kick in the following summer, for his fifth-year and beyond. Each summer a handful of max rookie extensions are handed out early in free agency, and then other non-max deals trickle in for the next few months up until the late-October deadline.

That’s what happened to the Class of 2018, with young stars like Luka Doncic, Trae Young and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander agreeing to max deals. Jaren Jackson Jr., Mikal Bridges, Kevin Huerter and Robert Williams III all agreed to non-max deals during the window. A record 11 players from that draft class signed extensions, an NBA-record. Collin Sexton and the Cavaliers, however, were unable to come to terms.

Such an extension would have reportedly been in the range of four-years, $100 million to get Sexton to agree to it. Paying a dynamic young guard $25 million per season was defensible, but it was clearly unwise for the Cavs to have signed. Even if Sexton hadn’t had season-ending knee surgery, his performance has been a lot of scoring and not a lot of elevating his team; scoring is imporant, and Sexton brings a lot of things to the table, but at the end of the day he is floor-raising and ceiling-lowering in a primary role.

The upside to waiting was that Sexton’s market value went down significantly. The downside is that there still isn’t resolution, and there may not be until the Cavs gather more information about their future situation, either from a potential extension for Caris LeVert (who technically plays the same position as Sexton) or word from LeBron James on his status with the Lakers. Sexton could still elect to play on the qualifying offer this season and then leave in free agency next year.

If given the choice between paying Sexton $25 million per season or dealing with this summer’s drama, it’s clear that the Cavs made the right call. The best scenario would have been to convince Sexton to sign a lower-level deal, but that wasn’t realistic given Sexton’s view of himself as an elite scoring threat.

New Grade: A-