It is no secret the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season hasn’t been as expected. While no one thought the Cavs would be returning to the NBA Finals for the fifth consecutive season, even the most negative fans would have thought they’d be sitting at 9-37 at this point.
But that’s what happens when not only does LeBron James depart, but your team is missing another all-star, Kevin Love, for basically the entire season.
All of the losing has caused fans to be very critical of some of the players, particularly the wine and gold’s first round draft pick, Collin Sexton.
It seems that many fans expected Sexton to be Kyrie Irving from the moment he took the court as a rookie. That’s a pretty unfair comparison.
Look, we don’t think the recently turned 20 year old point guard is having a good year. There are plenty of things he needs to address this off-season to be a starting caliber player on an NBA playoff team.
His assist to turnover ratio is 2.8::2.3, and his defensive win shares in the worst in the NBA.
However, if you look at the worst defensive win shares in the league, they lowest four all belong to Cleveland players: Cedi Osman, Rodney Hood, and Jordan Clarkson.
That’s because of the awful defensive concept the Cavaliers have used over the last two and a half seasons.
As for the assists to turnovers issue, the Cavs are second worst in the league in assists as a team, mostly because they don’t have a lot of ball movement in their offense. Our opinion is that’s a result of trying to control the shot clock in an effort to keep the pace slow.
That doesn’t mean Sexton is really a good passer either. At this point of his career, he’s more likely to look for his own shot than he is to seek the open man.
We’ve all seen the chart on social media showing Sexton’s terrible efficiency rating in comparison to the rest of the NBA players, but much of that is due to Cleveland’s terrible record and showing in games.
They get blown out a lot.
All of this doesn’t mean Sexton is a bust. First, no one should be labeled a bust 46 games into their career, especially someone who was thought of highly enough to be the eighth overall pick.
Make no mistake, most draft experts had Sexton going in the first dozen choices in the draft too. It’s not as though only the Cavaliers’ front office had him rated highly.
Actually, the one thing that has been better than advertised for the rookie is his shooting. He’s made 39% of his three point attempts (although he doesn’t shoot many), and is making 86.6% of his free throws, up 8% from his year at Alabama.
Let’s see how Sexton plays with a functional team before making the decision that the Cavs made a mistake.
A team with a coach that isn’t fired six games into the season. A team that doesn’t lose its best player four games into the year. A team that doesn’t have a revolving door at the #2 guard spot. A team that doesn’t try to play a small forward at the #4 position.
With all this going on, it’s not fair to make a judgment on Collin Sexton. Sometimes there is an underlying story beyond the analytics.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 