I am confident in two things when it comes to Sexton. He’ll play with great effort offensively and he can put the ball in the hoop.
The two things I want to see next year...
1. Can he make plays for others/play without blinders with the ball in his hands?
Far too often last year the ball would simply stop once it got into his hands and the only outcome would be Collin taking a shot. Chalk it up to whatever you want; bad teammates, no offensive plays being run, inexperience, etc. Sexton simply didn’t show a lot vision or innate feel as a passer.
Now he did show the ability to get buckets, which is a lot better than not making shots, but at his size and with his defensive limitations he’s going to have to dramatically improve as a playmaker for others if he’s going to remain a starter as the primary on the ball lead guard. There aren’t many 6’2” starting shooting guards out there for a reason.
2. Can he improve at all as a defender?
This one isn’t as important as No. 1 because if Sexton were to become a really high end playmaker AND continue to be a 40% 3PT shooter then you just live with weak defense because he’d be such a plus offensively. Problem is that Sexton wasn’t just weak defensively, he was one of the worst defensive players in the entire NBA.
Assuming he’s NOT going to develop into a high end playmaker (and it would be truly unprecedented if he did frankly given where he’s started), then he can’t also be a bottom of the barrel defender on top of that. He has to at least get to passable if he wants to remain a starter on a good team.