Collin Sexton reportedly is looking for around $80 million in free agency this offseason.
Sexton, who is a restricted free agent, has yet to sign an offer sheet with a team. The Cleveland Cavaliers extended him a qualifying offer earlier this offseason.
Cleveland could work out a potential sign-and-trade deal involving Sexton if it doesn’t want to commit that much money to him long term, but even that could be tricky, according to Right Down Euclid’s Evan Dammarell.
“With that said, let’s say the [Utah] Jazz sign Sexton to a four-year, $84 million contract, which, according to sources, is close to what the scoring guard is looking for,” Dammarell wrote. “Let’s assume that the contract factors out at $21 million annually, which means Cleveland is only able to obtain $10.5 million back in salary from Utah. [Malik] Beasley is set to make $15.5 million next season. Due to the fact I went to college for engineering, that means the Cavaliers are roughly $5.0 million short in a trade after crunching the numbers all night long.”
Sexton, who the Cavs drafted with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, averaged 16.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 28.7 minutes per game before going down with a torn meniscus last season.
Sexton is a really solid scorer when he’s healthy, and he had a great season for Cleveland during the 2020-21 campaign. During that season, Sexton averaged 24.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.0 steal per game while shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from beyond the arc.
It will be interesting to see if Sexton caves on his asking price this offseason.
