Collin Sexton Has Been IT
After Collin Sexton dropped a 42 point in Kyrie’s shoes this week he suddenly was a household name. Everyone in the media wanted a piece of the third year player who willed his team to a double OT win in the commencement of Brooklyn’s big three era. There is no better way to describe Sexton’s game other than that he is truly a dog; known for his tenacity and every night commitment the former #8 pick has silenced a lot of doubters already in his NBA career. Sexton has been everything the Cavaliers could have wanted and more, showing a willingness and effectiveness towards improving his game, continuing to shrink his inefficiencies and strengthen his best facets. Sexton has leaped from 16 to 20 to 27 PPG respectively in his first 3 NBA seasons garnering the respect of his peers and becoming the leader for the Cavaliers team in full rebuild. However, his startling trajectory cannot not be merely simplified in regards to his increase in volume, Sexton has improved in terms of efficiency every season, raising his EFG% from 48% as a rook to the 59% he now boasts.
So when Collin Sexton emerged the hero this week, the kryptonite to what many consider this evil empire in Brooklyn, there was an undertone of astonishment and incomprehensibility amongst the NBA talking heads and the timeline alike. Memes of “all this just to lose to Colin Sexton” depicting Brooklyn’s big 3 with solemn expressions shattered the social platforms making for markedly strong clickbait. Unfortunately, this narrative is stale, if not clouded in the superfluity of reaction from one single regular season mid January basketball game. The truth is that while Sexton, may have shown the casuals what he is made of Sexton’s emergence as an all-star player has been a long time coming. In 2018, Sexton came into the league and was immediately responsible for headmanning the skeleton crew of players in Cleveland, a team now living in the shadow of their achievement and glory under their beloved Lebron. But hangovers can be difficult, and not just a hangover, the hangover of Lebron’s departure was more similar to a hangover in which you wake up with no wallet keys or phone and not a single hint of what just happened.
Sexton was taxed with being the building block at the crucial on ball guard position, to help guide the Cavs back to some sort of relevance. With Kevin Love losing his form and some young players such as Kevin Porter Jr. not finding their place in Cleveland, Sexton’s growth has been expedited. With Andre Drummond in support, Sexton has piloted his team to a 7-7 record despite projections that they would finish dead last this season. Sexton has silenced many of the doubters from his beginnings in the NBA, that dismissed his potential due to his inability to involve teammates and contribute on the glass. It was determined that the electric ability he showed at Alabama would be stalled in the NBA halfcourt with nothing that showed he could become an elite scorer. To Sexton’s credit, the flaws are what he has focused on, and the holes in his game have continued to become more and more minute. What we learned vs. Brooklyn is what we should have already known, Sexton is a star in the making and he is neither up next nor on deck…Collin Sexton is an All-Star point guard and team leader and has been trending towards exactly that since the first time he stepped on an NBA court in 2018.
Also, if you need any more proof that Sexton wasn’t destined for this, check out what “YoungBull” did in this famous highschool showdown:
