Is League Interest In Collin Sexton Heating Up?

 

The Cavaliers and Collin Sexton are at an apparent impasse.

Sexton, a restricted free agent, has yet to get an offer anywhere close to the $18-22 million he’s seeking.

And the Cavs are in no rush to up their three-year, $40 million extension, considering the other bidders are…nonexistent.

At least that’s how things have gone so far.

Now, there might be a few teams ready to put their hats in the ring for Sexton.

 

On The Move

At one point or another, nearly every team entering free agency with cap space was rumored to have an interest in Sexton.

The Pistons, though, solved their backcourt through the draft.

Ditto for the Pacers, who will trot out Buddy Hield, Tyrese Haliburton, and rookie Bennedict Mathurin next season.

The Spurs are headed for a full-on rebuild after trading away their only star in Dejounte Murray.

After the first few weeks of moves, few teams had the cap space left over to give Sexton a contract that a) he would want and b) the Cavs wouldn’t just outright match.

That caused an awfully quiet Sexton market.

But according to Sam Amico of Hoops Wire, interest in the former Alabama guard might be heating back up:

“Sources have told Hoops Wire that negotiations between Sexton and the Cavs have not been contentious — but a fairly large gap remains. An agreement is not expected to be reached anytime soon, sources predicted.

Sexton is a restricted free agent, meaning the Cavs can match any offer from another team and keep him. But for Sexton, no other offers have been floated, and we’re more than a month into free agency.

The Jazz are closely monitoring the Sexton situation, and the Wizards are among those with him on their radar, sources said. The Cavs want him back. For now, though, the Cavs’ philosophy appears to be this: “Here’s our offer. Go ahead and see if you can do better.”

The Jazz and Wizards.

Both teams are conference proxies for the other.

The Jazz and Wiz both have star guards locked down on big deals in Donovan Mitchell and Bradley Beal, respectively.

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And both clubs are in a state of basketball purgatory.

Neither team is built to compete (and the Jazz seem ready to rebuild after trading Rudy Gobert for every single one of Minnesota’s thousand lakes).

 

Mix and Match

If the Jazz and Wizards want to get Sexton, there are two ways it could go down.

First, the teams could simply outbid the Cavs for him.

It’s unlikely, considering both teams are getting cap-strapped, aren’t likely to win this season, and whatever they do offer could likely be outright matched.

Second, the teams could work with the Cavs on a sign-and-trade.

This is where things get fun.

Let’s say either of these teams offers Sexton $19 million.

If the Wizards are trying to match salary, that likely means centering any sign-and-trade around Will Barton’s $15 million contract.

Barton would be a nice add for the Cavs; he offers length on the wing and went for 14.7 points last season.

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The Jazz, on the other hand, would also likely need to match salaries.

And no, not with Donovan Mitchell’s contract.

The Jazz are likely looking at moving one of Malik Beasely, Patrick Beverly, or Bojan Bogdanovic.

The best case scenario would be to land Jordan Clarkson, a scoring aficionado who could come off the bench.

The worst case would be getting fooled into taking on an aging and washed up Mike Conley’s $21 million.

One more snag.

A deal for Sexton isn’t exactly Jazz exec Danny Ainge’s modus operandi.

If Ainge and the Jazz are blowing it up, they’ll look for cheap players and potential big picks.

Not multi-million dollar players on long contracts.