Sexton should start for Cavs at SG: Secondary scoring
Darius Garland didn’t have a lot of help last season attacking opposing defenses. He had a lot of supporting offensive players he could move around the chessboard to open up opportunities to score, but he was making everything happen himself. Darland led the Cavs with 1,473 points scored last season, on top of 1,345 points generated off of assists; that’s a total of 2,818. The next highest Cavalier was Evan Mobley with 1,452.
The Cavs need a secondary scorer to step up and take some of the load off of Garland, especially against opposing starters. The hope is that Mobley takes a step forward this year, but with dependent players at the 3 and 5 in Lauri Markkanen and Jarrett Allen, respectively, the Cavs need a shot generator at the 2.
That’s a role perfect for Sexton, who was one of the league’s top scorers in his last healthy season in 2020-21, and last year led the Cavs in scoring through 11 games before he was injured. Starting or not, he won’t get that kind of usage on this version of the Cavs, but he knows how to fill up the scoresheet.
If defenses key into pick-and-roll actions with Garland and Allen, Sexton can run off of a screen, get the ball and attack a defense in rotation. Ball comes to Sexton in transition? He can run it down the opponent’s throat. He is fearless attacking the rim, and fairly efficient when he does so. That secondary scoring was lacking on the Cavs last season and something Sexton can provide.