3 Reasons to believe in Cleveland Cavaliers’ young core

2. Collin Sexton

Potential: Pure Scorer

If there’s one thing Collin Sexton does right, it’s getting buckets. Sexton led the Cavaliers in scoring this season, averaging over 20 points per game as a sophomore. The Young Bull has plenty of room for growth but has shown to be a borderline elite offensive talent already.

Sexton is most effective with the ball in his hands. While this is the root of most of his criticism, often revered as a selfish player, Sexton is flat out skilled at scoring off the bounce.

Last season, Sexton barely missed the top 20 for scoring, ranking 22nd in the league. He was especially great from February to mid-March, averaging 24.4 points per game on a 50.9/45.1/82.9 shooting clip. He was an above-average scorer coming off screens and handling the ball in pick-and-rolls. Sexton also finished in the 77th percentile in isolation scoring, converting on nearly half of all attempts.

Where he shined brightest was on his drive to the hoops. The lightning-quick guard made over 200 field goals on the drive, more than notable names like LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Though he shot a much lower percentage than those two stars, Sexton still finished 47.6 percent of his drives, in the same range as players such as Donovan Mitchell, Zach Lavine and Jayson Tatum.

He was also an efficient shooter, connecting on an above-average percentage of his 145 total catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts. He shot 35.0 percent on 3-pointers off the dribble, ranking 24th in the league and falling only 0.3 points behind James Harden.

From just about all areas of the floor, Sexton has proven to be a reliable scorer. What isn’t as encouraging is his assist numbers, posting one of the worst assist/turnover ratios in the league due to his tunnel vision playstyle. However, this is something he has been working on, dishing over 4.0 assists per game in the final 16 games of the season.

It’s unlikely Sexton ever becomes a high-level distributor. It’s going to be difficult for him to ever be a positive factor on the defensive end. This means Sexton’s best chance of being a star is by pushing his offensive talents to the max.

One area that Sexton should look to improve is his cuts. Sexton is perhaps the fastest guard in the league. Using his speed in a different manner by bursting off-ball to the hoop could be an easy way for Sexton to rack up buckets. As of now, Sexton ranks in the 25th percentile in this category and hardly ever utilizes this potential weapon.