The Collin Sexton All-Stars: the guys I hate to love
Collin Sexton jacks shots and doesn’t play defence. I love players who take smart shots and grind on the other end of the court. So why do I like Sexton so much? And why are there scores of dudes across the league that I love in spite of their games?
Recently, a strange thing has happened to me. I’ve found myself, more and more, being attracted to players who are the antithesis of the basketball I love. Guys who don’t pass, guys who jack too many shots, bad defenders and bad teammates. I don’t know why I’ve started to gravitate towards these players, but I have.
To come to terms with this, I’m unveiling the Collin Sexton All-Stars, where I’m going to vent about the guys I hate to love, and come to terms with the fact that I do, in fact, love their games.
To kick things off, the namesake.
Collin Sexton, Cleveland Cavaliers
I’ll start with the bad stuff. Sexton might be the worst guard defender in basketball. Of the 293 players who appeared in at least 30 games and played 15 minutes per game this season, Sexton ranks 287th in defensive rating.
The Cavs are 8.8 points per one hundred possessions worse on defence when Sexton is on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass. That number is actually worse than the one he posted as a rookie and ranks in the third percentile league-wide.
He routinely loses his man when he’s screened, showing a lack of awareness and slamming into a pick, taking him out of the play. Coming into the league, he projected as an elite defender, but so far that just hasn’t happened.
Sexton is also a bad passer. He’s in the fourth percentile among point guards in assist percentage, and the second percentile in assist to usage percentage per Cleaning the Glass, both good measures of a player’s passing chops. He might be the single worst passer and defender amongst point guards in the league. If there are two things I hate, it’s bad defence and poor passing, so why do I like him so much?
Because there’s so much he does well as a scorer. He’s much more accomplished than he’s given credit for around the league. He’s a confident ball handler and uses his quickness to slice past defenders and get to the rim, where he’s a developing finisher. When Cleveland uses him off-ball, he’s a dangerous shooter, canning 38 percent of his 3.9 attempts per game. He’s also a good cutter, which gives him a full head of steam and looks close to the basket.
The young point guard has a diverse skill set offensively, and there’s something about his game that I just can’t shake.
He has the makings of a quality complementary scorer and might be able to thrive in an offence with a star-level scorer attracting most of the attention. That way he could rove, cut and spot-up whilst attacking closeouts and getting himself to the rim. I don’t think Sexton’s true breakout will come with the Cavaliers, but he’s putting up 20.8 points per game and doing it efficiently.
There’s something here, mark my words.
DeMar DeRozan, San Antonio Spurs
Somehow, DeMar DeRozan is only thirty years old but it seems like he’s been in the league forever. If you had told me he’s thirty-five years old, I probably would’ve believed you.
The fact that it’s shocking to hear he’s so young is a tribute to his consistency over the last decade. He has stayed true to his stylistic trappings in a way that few stars have in recent memory.
That’s how he’s stayed relevant for so long, but it’s also how he limited his, and the Raptors’ ceiling: by subsisting on a heavy mid-range diet, DeRozan hoisted his team to the precipice of success, only to be undone by the very thing that brought him thus far. It’s tragic, really. I always loved DeMar’s game, even when it became clear that it was the antithesis of where the game was headed.
His addiction to the midrange game and his three-point allergy make him seem like a relic from the mid-2000s, and maybe that’s why he seems so much older than thirty. Whilst never an efficient scorer, he was consistent. Aside from a 27.3 points per game outburst in 2016/17, he’s averaged between 20.1 and 23.5 points per game every year since 2013. The remarkable consistency with which he put up his scoring totals mirrors the consistency with which he hunted his mid-range shots, posted up smaller guards and pump-faked out of threes.
His totals haven’t fallen off in San Antonio, but the Spurs’ descent from postseason relevance has hastened DeRozan’s perceived decline. Since he arrived in Texas, he’s dug his heels in and eschewed threes all together, operating as a midrange assassin pouring in around 20 points per game. Some things change, and some things don’t.
Dillon Brooks, Memphis Grizzlies
Dillon Brooks is a gunner. He plays 28 minutes per game, shoots 14 times per game and connects on a ghastly 40.2 percent of his attempts. What’s to like?
Well, actually quite a lot! If you can look past his glaring offensive inefficiency (doing this is generally a bad idea) then there’s a whole heap about Brooks’ game that I love.
He’s got a big 6’7”, 220-pound frame and loves to bully smaller players when he gets a mismatch, taking them down into the post. He’s a tenacious player that brings intensity on both ends. Watching Brooks play, I’m reminded of Marcus Smart in the way that no shot is too big, and there’s no better person to take any shot. Much like his Celtics counterpart, Brooks will dive for a loose ball, hype his teammates and get in the face of the opposition.
This is the kind of head-scratching confidence that can drive fanbases mad, but it’ll also endear a player to the fans when it goes right, which thankfully for Brooks, it often does.
He fits the Grit and Grind mantra perfectly, diving for loose balls and rebounding in a crowd while adding a bit more flair than the Grizzlies of yore. There’s plenty of warts with his game, but the big wing can fill it up, and when he does, his confidence and drive are electrifying.
Mario Hezonja
Sometimes, a guy’s confidence is so irrationally extreme that it infects the fan and fills their heads with notions of grandeur, and dare I say, competence. Hezonja dunked on and stepped over the soon-to-be two-time reigning MVP. He declared himself the best player in the draft before he’d ever played a game. He talks trash, he hangs on the rim after poster dunks. He blocked Lebron James on a game-winning shot. He must be good, right? Right?
There are mountains of evidence to the contrary, but despite that, I’ve bought in. There’s just something captivating about his arrogance, especially in the face of the mounting evidence that he’s not a good NBA player.
He throws down some truly thunderous dunks, but he’s one of the worst at-rim finishers in the league. He claims to be a three-point sniper, but he’s never hit 35 percent from deep in a season. He’s a walking contradiction with a Herculean ego and I am all in.
Enes Kanter
Everyone’s favourite bruising big man who you can’t play when it matters, Kanter has made a career of doing two things at an elite level. He rebounds like a madman, ranking near the top of the league in contested rebound percentage, and he scores down low, ranking 29th across the NBA in points per post-up this season.
If he were drafted 15 years earlier, he might’ve been a perennial All-Star, but after developing his offensive game in Utah as a youngster, the NBA quickly realised that he lacks the defensive chops to get it done.
He’s been a sub-par interior defender for his entire career, and I mean sub-par, but when you need a bucket down low or a touch board, there are few better guys. Throw in the fact that he’s loud and brash and is an enemy of the problematic Turkish government, and it’s easy to see how he’s slowly stolen my heart. My team, the Phoenix Suns, love white backup centres, so Enes is always welcome in the Valley of the Sun. Just don’t ask him to try on defence.
My favourite player ever is Steve Nash, a guy who played the game with grace, humility and competitive drive. He was a winner, he made his teammates better and he succeeded at every level.
The guys in the inaugural Collin Sexton All-Stars don’t exactly embody Nash’s legacy, but there’s just something about them that grabs my attention and doesn’t let go. Either through their games or force of personality, the Collin Sexton All-Stars give me joy where I never thought I’d find it.
