Cleveland Cavaliers: Collin Sexton’s rookie slump is nothing to worry about

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been struggling and Collin Sexton has hit a rookie slump. Despite this, there is no reason to be overly concerned.

Fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers are quickly turning on rookie point guard Collin Sexton. After a recent stretch of cold shooting games, Sexton has been receiving a ton of flak for his poor performances. However, there are reasonable explanations for this slump and he shouldn’t be judged so harshly.

For starters, Sexton is a 20-year-old rookie attempting to run an NBA offense. This is no easy task and it has been made even more difficult for him since the Cavaliers have failed to provide any type of consistency to the rotations. As of Saturday, Cleveland has put out a total of 19 different starting lineups, the most of any team in the league this year.

With constant changes to the roster, it is no wonder that Sexton has struggled to succeed in this offense. On top of this, there have been a number of injuries to some of the Cavs’ best players. For example, Kevin Love has missed almost every game this season, while Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr. and Tristan Thompson have all missed multiple games.

Mix all of this in with the fact that Cleveland’s offense isn’t very good in general and it’s tough to put the blame on Sexton. The Cavaliers currently score the third-fewest points per game in the entire league. To make things worse, they also give up the eighth-most points. This combination of poor offense and defense will make it tough for any young player to thrive.

As a result of his recent slump, many fans have come under the assumption that Sexton has been playing bad all season. This just isn’t true. In his first 18 games as a starter, Collin averaged 18.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He accomplished all of this while also shooting a very efficient 46.7 percent from both the field and the 3-point line.

Sadly, he has seen a drastic decrease in efficiency and scoring lately. In the last 21 games, Sexton is averaging 13 points, 3.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds a game. His shooting has been the root of his problems, connecting on only 35.2 percent of his 3-point attempts and shooting just 35.7 percent from the field overall.

It’s no coincidence the Cavaliers have gone just 3-18 during this stretch and became the first team in NBA history to lose four consecutive home games by 20-plus points. As a whole, the Cavaliers have been very bad and it is hard to pinpoint the blame to any singular player.

When you take all of this into account, it’s remarkable that Sexton still ranks fourth in points, fifth in assists and fourth in rebounds (for guards) per game among rookies. Sexton is also tied for the most 10-plus point games with 40 under his belt. He has played in a highly dysfunctional environment and has been given little to no mentorship, yet he is still putting up solid numbers.

So while some people have already declared Sexton a bust, we need to give him more time to grow and develop. It is very rare for players to come into the league at 19 years old and be instant stars. When judging a player in his rookie season, it is better to watch for brief flashes of greatness, rather than focus solely on his slumps.

Players such as Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and John Collins are great examples of late bloomers. Because of players such as them, there is no reason to count Sexton out at this point in the season.