The Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the midst of their post-LeBron James rebuild, and guard Collin Sexton seems to be at the center of it all.
He was arguably playing the best basketball of his NBA career before the 2019-20 season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and teammate Kevin Love thinks Sexton is going to build off of that success.
In fact, the star big man thinks Sexton is in for a highly productive summer.
“He is such a competitor,” Love said in an end-of-season Zoom call with reporters. “It’s infectious to be around. It’s very seldom have I seen somebody work so hard in this league to get better. I believe that he saw the game open up so much, because he’s so easy, so fast and so heavy — and finishes so well within 15 feet. And he really started to look and kind of find where he can distribute as well.
“It was really, really cool to see that. A guy like Collin, who was trending so well throughout the entire season, putting up 20-point games, continuing to have really, really big games for us, I wanted to see how he was gonna finish the season. I know he would have finished incredibly strong, but I do believe that he’s one of the guys that will take another big step this summer just because he just chases the game and works so incredibly hard.”
On the season, Sexton averaged 20.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. In March, those numbers jumped up to 30.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game.
The University of Alabama product displayed tremendous growth from his rookie season to his second year in the pros. It seems clear that his teammates expect another jump to occur during his third season in the league.
As for Love, it remains unclear if he will remain on the Cavs past this offseason. While trade rumors have surrounded the former All-Star for the past several seasons, a concrete deal has thus far failed to materialize.
If Love plays for the Cavs next season, fans can expect him and Sexton to serve as the team’s primary offensive focal points. Hopefully, the hard work they put in this summer results in greater success going forward.
