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Collin Sexton | The Young Bull

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What Resolves First?

  • Collin Sexton's Restricted Free Agency

    Votes: 19 38.8%
  • Baker Mayfield's Tenure with the Browns

    Votes: 30 61.2%

  • Total voters
    49
  • Poll closed .
I'd like to hear from a reporter or insider how/if the coaching staff is working with Collin on the defensive end.

The growth of his game on the offensive end can't be questioned. From finishing at the rim, discarding the
long 2, improved accuracy from 3 point land, the evidence is before our eyes. Now we are seeing clear
signs that he is seeing his teammates more and moving the ball. Still room to grow but do you
want to bet against him? If he were a stock commodity, analysts would have him as a strong buy.

His height handicaps him on the defensive end, can't teach size and all that. But with his athleticism, hustle
and strength, he has the tools to be an average defender at least.

It all comes down to where the emphasis is coming from the coaching staff and if Collin himself
starts to take that end of the court seriously. Youngsters want the ball in their hands and
hoops. Bruises as the result of hard nose defense take a different mindset. How much does
the player want to reach for the maximum of themselves?
 
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 at 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 now when we are making moves to compete and playing better team defense 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 built defensive team that plays no team defense in a league that absolutely requires both of those to be successful.
 
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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.

That is a really excellent analysis -- not remotely what I suspected given all the complaints about his defense. Thanks for doing that!
 
If you want to knock Sexton on D, people should be focused on him stopping the ball on defense. He is fast enough to race down the floor and stop the ball, but he has a "hang back and see" attitude. He should really be racing ahead of the pack just so the ballhandler sees a guy in front of him and then guy could sort themselves out in the half court. That's the way D'arron Fox plays D, and Sexton should model it, especially with the team's poor transition D.

Him not contesting 6'7" Bullock well enough isn't really the track to take. It should be staying in front of guys, stopping the ball in transition, and fighting over screens(another big one).
 
That is a really excellent analysis -- not remotely what I suspected given all the complaints about his defense. Thanks for doing that!

Just another one, for shits sake.

Most common play type he finds himself in is defending the ball-handler in a PnR. Gives up 1 point per possession, which is not good. That’s a bad number.

But it’s better than Patrick Beverly (1.01 PPP) currently, and right in line with Donovan Mitchell (.98 PPP) and everybody’s golden boy, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (.96).

And he’s doing it while playing with 2 of the worst big PnR defenders in Tristan and Love.

Not hearing how those guys are bad defenders. They’re putting up bad individual defensive numbers on teams that play above average defense as a whole (Houston, OKC, and Utah are all in the top 15 for Defensive Rating as a team).
 
Just another one, for shits sake.

Most common play type he finds himself in is defending the ball-handler in a PnR. Gives up 1 point per possession, which is not good. That’s a bad number.

But it’s better than Patrick Beverly (1.01 PPP) currently, and right in line with Donovan Mitchell (.98 PPP) and everybody’s golden boy, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (.96).

Not hearing how those guys are bad defenders. They’re putting up bad individual defensive numbers on teams that play above average defense as a whole (Houston, OKC, and Utah are all in the top 15 for Defensive Rating as a team).

@jking948

You're a great analytics guy here. What do you think of this stuff?
 
@jking948

You're a great analytics guy here. What do you think of this stuff?

I mean, this isn’t my stuff.

This is all from NBA.com’s player tracking stats. And, like all stats, only tells part of the story.

Main point is I think Sexton has individual qualities from an effort and athletic standpoint that when we decide to fit in better defensive personnel around him, his defensive numbers like DRtg and the like will follow suit.

Just, the pairing of Garland and Sexton with the big pairing of Love and Sexton is the worst case scenario from a team defense perspective. Problem is we don’t really have anyone more suited for that either. We just don’t have defensive parts yet, but we’re also very early in our rebuild and those niche and specialist players have no use on a rebuilding team.
 
@jking948

You're a great analytics guy here. What do you think of this stuff?
I mean, this isn’t my stuff.

This is all from NBA.com’s player tracking stats. And, like all stats, only tells part of the story.

Main point is I think Sexton has individual qualities from an effort and athletic standpoint that when we decide to fit in better defensive personnel around him, his defensive numbers like DRtg and the like will follow suit.

Just, the pairing of Garland and Sexton with the big pairing of Love and Sexton is the worst case scenario from a team defense perspective. Problem is we don’t really have anyone more suited for that either. We just don’t have defensive parts yet, but we’re also very early in our rebuild and those niche and specialist players have no use on a rebuilding team.
Sexton is good at bullying the other offensive player. I think he can be a good team defender if there are long wings and a traditional center. But his individual defense will always be a problem.
 
Some of our more successful lineups this year. Small sample size but our #4 most used lineup.

Sexton Delly Osman Love TT

This unit played in 10 games and outscored opponents 7 of the 10 with offensive rating of 112 and defense rating of 98

Our best defensive lineup is the #6 most used.

Delly Porter Clarkson Nance TT

Appeared in 13 games and outscored opponents 8 of the 13 with offensive rating of 98 and a defensive rating of 92

#9 most used

Sexton Clarkson Osman Love TT

Appeared in seven games and outscored opponents 6 of the 7 with an offensive rating of 124 and defensive rating of 97

#18 most used lineup

Garland Porter Clarkson Love TT

Appeared in six games and outscored their opponents 5 of the 6 with an offensive rating of 143 and a defensive rating of 113

One thing I noticed other then Clarkson not being here anymore is none of these lineups have Garland and Sexton together.
 
He looked great. Kept things moving, and shot well. Needs to tighten that handle.

He's playing with the other guys all of a sudden.

I like the skip passes Garland and Collin are making to each other. Timing is much better.

They can play for spurts together, but they should study that Chris Paul and Schroeder tape. They played great
 
Sexton’s ability to improve mid-season is uncanny.

If only he could improve even a bit on the defensive end. Or if we could maybe find some defensive wings/bigs to help hide his defense. His scoring ability is great, he's becoming better as a secondary facilitator past couple of weeks. But the Defense man is that bad.
 
Sexton has less defensive potential than Garland imo. It's not physical either. He simply has no brains of feel for it.
 
Sexton has less defensive potential than Garland imo. It's not physical either. He simply has no brains of feel for it.

I agree Completely. And as good as his scoring potential is. I'm not sure if his offensive output will ever out weigh his defensive inefficiencies.
 

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