Competitive Psychopath: A Collin Sexton Story

After the Cavs netted the Nets unprotected first round pick in the Kyrie trade, I slowly began wading in the 2018 draft prospect waters. The undertow of finding a longterm replacement for Uncle Drew organically pulled me towards the point guard prospects, and that’s when my curiosity with Collin Sexton began. Sexton’s high school highlights blew me away. He attacked the defense as if it he was a bail bondsman who was late on his own car note aka car payment, and on the flip side of the floor he smothered his man on defense. No matter where the Nets finished in the standings, I wanted Sexton in wine and gold, or sometimes black, or blue and orange.

The Raw:

The 19-year-old is the latest sports star to hail from the small city of Marietta, Georgia. He follows in the footsteps of local Cobb County legends such as Jaylen Brown, Cedric Henderson, Travis Tritt, and of course the late, great Ray Taylor, aka the Big Boss Man.

Sexton’s lone season at Alabama was dynamic as he averaged 19.2 points per game along with 3.6 dimes, which earned him a share of SEC Freshman of the Year honors along with Kevin Knox of Kentucky. Sexton is just the second Crimson Tider to receive the award, along with former Cavalier Mo Williams.

Sexton shined in the SEC Tournament averaging 26.3 ppg, 3 apg, and 5 rpg which included him hitting a buzzer beater for the win against Texas A&M, and thrashing top seed Auburn by 18 points. Sexton earned all-tournament team honors for his performance. In the Tide’s lone NCAA tournament win over Virginia Tech, Sexton led the way with 25 points on 14 shots, along with 6 assists.

Strengths:

Sexton’s height measured in at just 6’1.5″ at the combine, but his Stretch Armstrong long limbs make up that perceived deficiency as his wingspan clocked in at whopping 6’7.25.” While Mo Bamba got all of the pub at the NBA combine for his wingspan, Sexton’s is nearly on par in relation to his height. I couldn’t care less where Sexton’s head is measures in at while he’s leaving a Wawa. I value how high his hand is to the rim, and where his wingspan ranks amongst the successful point guards of the same height over the past decade.

Sexton has a longer wingspan than Chris Paul (6’4.25″), Steph Curry (6’3.5″), Kyrie (6’4″), Mike Conley (6’5.5″), Deron Williams (6’6.25″), etc. Combine his wingspan with his intensity to fight over screens, and he projects as a dynamic defender at a position that is a negative league wide.

https://youtu.be/PpgmU-1nJjI?t=48s

In his head to head matchup with Steph (or Seth) Curry wannabe Trae Young, Sexton not only led his team victory, but he outplayed Young on both sides of the floor. He held Young to just 17 points on 17 shots, twelve under Young’s season average, along with five turnovers. Sexton had 18, and only three lost balls.

https://youtu.be/YfOveZKs-Ro?t=35s

On the offensive side, Sexton is a blur with the ball up the court. In the video above featuring his buzzer beater over Texas A&M, he traversed the from paint to paint in four seconds, while dodging defenders along the way. He’s a down hill runner too, and unlike our beloved Saint Weirdo, he doesn’t shy away from contact.

While he doesn’t hold Kyrie’s mastery off the glass, he’s already got an elite Euro-step, and big league coordination of his body mid-air to bank it in from a variety of angles. His ball handling isn’t bad either. He seems comfortable going either direction with the ball and can finish with either hand.

A key difference between Sexton and Irving, is that Sexton is a significantly more above the rim player. I don’t doubt that he’ll have more dunks in his first year, than Kyrie has had over his career. Avery Johnson, Sexton’s coach at Alabama, uses Sacramento Mayor, and former Cavs draft pick Kevin Johnson, as his NBA comp for Sexton, and it seems right. Like Johnson, he can beat his man off the dribble at will. Like Johnson, he’ll put defenders who are a foot taller than him on posters.

The Cavs Independence practice facility is within walking distance to the Baby Boomer daycare I spend 50 hours per week at. Naturally, we get players, coaches and scouts in from time to time. While sitting with a scout a few months back the topic of the draft came up. He gushed about Sexton months ago, and stated that he thinks Sexton has one of the highest ceilings in the draft based on his physicality, athleticism, and drive, along with a floor that is probably a better Patrick Beverly. That works for me.

Weakness

The largest criticism of his game entering the draft is that he isn’t a consistent shooter from downtown as he shot just 33.6% from three. He doesn’t have a Michael Kidd-Gilchrist cross-faced chicken wing of a broken jumper though as he did shoot 48% in November and 42.3% in March from deep. My point being that his shot doesn’t need drastically overhauled. The motion of his shot is fluid, but it seems that he leans to the left often with his jumper. With improved footwork, he should be fine from deep. If he can pair a reliable deep ball with his explosion off the dribble, he’ll be able to toy with NBA defenses someday.

From My Eyes

While I became a Sexton fan before the season started. I fell in love with him as a prospect on November 25th. The Tide were battling the favored 14th ranked Golden Gophers (Minor league baseball great nickname btw). After that game, Sexton was no longer just a prospect to me, but a legend like Paul Bunyan, or Robert Evans during the 70s.

Alabama would have had to overachieve to win the game with a full roster.  With 12 minutes to go in the second half there was a skirmish on the court, and all but five members of the Tide were ejected. A moment later, Dazon Ingram was charged with his fifth foul. Two possessions after that, John Perry sprained his ankle after landing awkwardly on a jumper. Alabama had to make up an eleven point deficit with just three players. It seemed impossible.

Collin Sexton could have easily accepted that beating a better team with just three active players wasn’t feasible, and packed it in for the night. He didn’t. He fed off of the adversity and took it as a personal challenge to fight back. Sexton harnessed his intensity and scored 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting the rest of the way. He boarded like a beast, raced up the court and beat double and sometimes triple teams to rack. He split the defenders twice a la Price, and hit a pair of threes from the left wing. All told he had 40 points on the night on just 22 shots. He made it a one possession game, and nearly beat the 14th ranked team in the country by himself.

There’s no quit in Collin Sexton, unlike the Cavaliers teams we’ve watched give half-hearted effort in so many losses over the past few seasons. Are they gonna try tonight? He will. He’s committed to being the best he can be, on the court and off of it, and earned a 4.0 during the fall semester.

I don’t doubt that his outside shot will improve. He made football factory Alabama relevant at basketball for the first time in years. Sexton has something rare on the basketball floor. You could easily say he’s a “pure scorer,” or has the “mamba mentality,” or any of those other over chewed up cow cud cliches. There’s a Ted Bundy level of intensity in his eyes, like he’s going to explode at any moment. He’s a competitive psychopath. He doesn’t just want to beat the guy guarding him, he wants to humiliate him in front of his children, so that the kids never see their father as a man again. After years of having soft Cavs, I want a guy who’s ready to fight for his team, and city. If the LeBron circus stays or goes, I want Sexton to be the pick at eight. He’s going to be an absolute witch.