So much of modern NBA defense has to do with scheme and team nowadays, with offenses being so heavily reliant on motion, screens, and pace of play, that it’s ridiculous to call out an individual defender when the entire teams defense is atrocious, a lot of which has to do with roster build prior to Sexton coming into the league or pieces brought back through trade to rebuild.
Just going and looking at individual defense on certain play types and he’s not even close to our worst defender as an individual. Garland and Porter Jr. are ahead of him on a points per possession basis on nearly every play type, as is McKinnie, Cedi, Clarkson, and Exum for the most part.
He also shares the floor with the worst defended FG% qualified player in the league in Kevin Love, who gives up an astonishing 55.5% FG% to whomever he is guarding. Next closest qualified player to that figure is an entire percentage point lower. He also shares the floor a lot with Garland, whose giving up a 52.7% defended FG%, McKinnie whose are 51.7%, Porter Jr. whose at 51.5%.
Only starters below 50% are Sexton himself, Cedi, and Tristan.
We just don’t have the personnel to run an effective defensive unit currently, which is the norm for a rebuilding team.
If Sexton’s defensive stats still look like they do know when we are making moves to compete and playing better team defensive with better defensive personnel, which will come, then we can pick up the talk about how bad of a defender he is.
Until then, he is exactly what everyone else is on the team. A player on a poorly build defensive team that plays no team defense in a league that absolutely requires both of those to be successful.