3 reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers will finish the season strong
By Tony Pesta
3. Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman
Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman are two players that were thrust into roles they probably weren’t ready for. Sexton, in particular, had a brutal rookie slump where opposing teams picked him apart night after night.
It didn’t take long for team’s to rack up footage on Sexton and figure out how to shut him down. As a result, Sexton had a 23-game stretch in which he averaged 12.7 points per game on a horrid 35.2 percent shooting from the field.
In Osman’s case, he suffered from a lack of confidence for much of the first half of the season. He was prematurely selected to be one of the team’s leading scorers. Once his shot started to falter, Osman quickly lost track of himself. He no longer played to his strengths and fell into a rut of poor performances.
Luckily, Cedi has managed to flip things around. He is now being more aggressive in transition and is thriving as a finisher around the rim. This has helped open up the rest of his game as he is averaging 21.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game over his last five games.
Meanwhile, it looks like Sexton is digging himself out of his slump as well. He is showing obvious improvements in the last few weeks and is playing much better. In his last four games, Sexton is putting up 22.5 points per game on 44 percent shooting from the 3-point line.
These two players have done a great job of weathering the storm and making it through their slumps. Expect them to build off of this progress moving forward.