You Don't Know what You Have until it's Gone: A Collin Sexton Rant

 

    

    You don't know what you have until it's gone. And to me it feels like "gone" means more than just the injury.

    Collin Sexton flat out deserves better. He's spent his whole career getting shit on and all he's done is put his head down and work. From the moment he stepped in the league, Cavs vets ripped him and said he "doesn't know how to play". And it never stopped from there. All he heard was that he couldn't pass. He couldn't defend. And no one ever stood up for him. Management drafted another point guard, proving they didn't believe he could improve as a playmaker.

    The slander didn't stop. Everyone said he wasn't a starter; a 6th man. No one else gets shit on like this. He averaged 21 ppg on average efficiency his Sophomore year! He should've been talked about like he was an up and coming star, not a bench player. And again, no one, not even management, defended him. 

    He started getting shit from his own teammates again. Kevin Love's frustrations blew up on the court and became national news. What did Sexton do in response? Put his head down and work. He got better. He improved his passing. He got even better as a scorer. 

    In his third year he really began to come into his own, posting numbers of 24.3 points and 4.4 assists on average efficiency. Players who do this in their third year usually go from prospect to heralded as a young star. Not Sexton. Instead? Garland broke out too and the whole year there was a Civil War between Team Garland and Team Sexton. 

    As the season progressed, there was more calling for him to be benched. Even trades became a discussed topic. Trades! He was producing at levels that should get his name brought up when talking about All-Star injury replacements. This was truly unheard of. And the most impressive part of Sexton's part was that he did all this in a horrible situation all year. That horrible situation also resulted in a season that didn't produce hardly anything in terms of wins, a criticism that Sexton would, of course, be held accountable for.

    Still, not one peep out of Sexton's mouth. All he did was work to get better. And again, not a peep from management either in defense of him. As the offseason arrived, more stories came out. Opposing players taunted other Cavaliers about Sexton not passing to them. Reports were released about executives viewing him as a "glorified bench player". Again, not a single soul came to the kid's defense. Instead what we got were more stories about anonymous scouts calling Sexton "a backup and an asshole" saying "none of his teammates like him" as well as official reports of the Cavs' Front Office shopping Sexton around the league. 

    The packages offered back were actually disrespectful. You'll hear about bad offers here and there, but these were genuinely disrespectful. Obi Toppin, Kevin Knox, and a first. Sexton being used as sweetener to get rid of Kevin Love's contract. Really? Sweetener? 

    Seriously? Who the hell else gets treated like this? Not an ounce of respect from anyone, not even within the Cavaliers' organization. With absolutely zero exaggeration, the only positive media coverage I've ever heard about Sexton was on the night he lit up the brand new KD-Harden-Kyrie Nets for 42 in an overtime win. 

    That night should've been his coming out party. Single-handedly beating the league's newest superteam in their inaugural ceremony. Game-tying shot over Kyrie while wearing his shoes to send the game into overtime. Contested threes over all five players on the court. It was utterly insane the things he was pulling off that night. I've never seen anything like it, it was truly unbelievable.

    Instead, it has become a forgotten moment, a footnote in a troubled tenure that I'm sure will come to a close sooner rather than later. Why do I think that way? Actions speak louder than words, and this season's events paint a pretty clear picture of what's to come.

    First, the Cavs declined to give Collin Sexton the extension he was looking for of 4 years, $100 million. A price that honestly didn't seem all that high, especially considering the expected rise in the salary cap in the coming years. Second, all offseason we've heard from JB Bickerstaff and how he intends to use Collin in a more off-ball role. The front office fully supported that decision as well, Trading Taurean Prince for Ricky Rubio. It really doesn't get more straightforward than that, they wanted the ball out of Collin's hands. 

    The results were as expected. Both the front office and coaching staff wanted less of Collin Sexton, and that's exactly what they got. A player with consistent, significant statistical improvement year after year turned in career lows in minutes, points, field goal attempts, and assists. They managed to turn 24-4 with the needle pointed firmly upwards into the worst statistical season of his career.

    Sexton is a north-south athlete, one who excels when he can just blow by defenders and get to the rim. Instead he was plopped in the corner and told you won't attack much and when you do, it'll be from here. The corner is probably the worst place for someone like Sexton to attack from. On one side you have the baseline, a firm barrier easy to funnel into. Drive the other way and you're literally taking yourself away from the rim unless you instantly get your shoulders past the defender.

    There's a reason no one ever attacks from the corners, and that's because it sucks. Plus, the corners are even closer to the rim than out top, giving Sexton even less of a runway to get by defenders. And that's exactly what Sexton needs to be successful on any given possession. It's simple, honestly. The more space between the defender and the rim, the more space there is to beat the defender to the rim. The corner is the shortest distance to the rim from beyond the 3pt arc, yet that's where he was told to attack from. The whole offense was not built for him to fail, intentionally or not.

    As a result of the decisions made to take Sexton off the ball, his production has taken a sharp nosedive. In the 11 games so far, he's averaged 16 points and 2 assists per game. That's what you get when you reduce his role. And considering Sexton's game outside of scoring is okay at best, limiting his biggest strengths really limits his impact overall. Sexton's progressed to being a good enough passer but without the ball that's less effective, and his defense, while improved, still isn't anything impressive. Considering all this, why is a 16ppg Sexton more impactful than someone like Jordan Clarkson? Sexton is clearly better than Clarkson, but when you limit his role to that of Clarkson, and neither are impressive in other aspects, what's the difference? 

    I know for sure I wouldn't pay Jordan Clarkson $100 million, and the front office is probably thinking that too, which is why I really don't see Sexton returning. Sexton's biggest strengths are his scoring and on-ball creation, so when you limit that, there isn't much left. 

    With the news this morning of Sexton's torn meniscus, it only makes matters worse for the relationship between Collin and the organization. If he elects to have surgery, it'll wipe out the remainder of his season and his contract year will be looked back upon as 11 games of 16ppg and not much else. He'll have no chance to prove himself and show he's more than this and worth a large extension. Plus, if guys like Garland and Okoro perform well in his absence, moving on from him will look like an easier decision than it previously would have.

    Collin Sexton's entire tenure as a Cavalier has been filled with adversity and disrespect and an overall lack of appreciation. Collin's gone through so much and had to deal with an absurd amount of shit from anyone who decides to open their mouth about him. Honestly it's a shame that all this has happened to him. 

    If I'm Collin Sexton next offseason, and someone else offers me even $80 million to go put the ball in the basket for them, I'm packing my shit and giving double birds walking out the door. They clearly don't want him to be himself there, so there's no reason for him to stay. He owes that organization nothing. Respect is earned, and the Cavaliers sure as hell haven't done anything to earn Sexton's respect. I'm going to miss him, but I'll be happy for him if he goes somewhere where he's wanted.