Cleveland has improved and is now set up to be very good for quite a while.
theathletic.com
That season, the franchise launched an unprecedented, multipronged, full-throated marketing and coercion campaign for Sexton. Not so he could be the most valuable player or even rookie of the year but for the rookie All-NBA first team. Not only did the campaign fail, but the Cavs hadn’t done anything close to it for James — at any point during his 11 seasons in Cleveland — or for Irving.
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In his first two years, he had no help on defense, leaving him more vulnerable to punishing pick-and-roll plays than most young point guards. Sexton blossomed into the team’s leading scorer, but an inability to see open teammates and feed them the ball occasionally grated on them, taking them back to those first days of Sexton’s tenure, when the franchise elevated him before he was ready, at their expense.
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It’s important to note that through it all — the eye-rolling from teammates, the carousel of coaches, the grousing by media members (like me) and the bellyaching of fans who chose to dwell on Sexton’s faults — at no point did Sexton lash out, complain or do anything untoward when he could have.
Sexton was courteous to fans, respectful and friendly to reporters, laughed and joked with veteran teammates whom he sometimes annoyed, always supported new players when they joined the organization and constantly worked on his craft.
He just, well, couldn’t outrun his flaws or the Cavs’ losing while his flaws were on display.
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There is no reason to dive deeply into the negotiations between the Cavs and Sexton over a new contract this summer. They didn’t exist, and anyway, he is on a new team with a contract he should be happy with (four years, $72 million) given his injury and what he was going to get this season from Cleveland. He deserved better from the Cavs, given what he’d done for them while they suffered through so many growing pains.
Meanwhile, the Cavs had earned the right not to overpay for him, given their shrewd and impressive measures elsewhere to vault quickly into respectability.