It’s been nearly two months since free agency began, and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton remains unsigned. The 23-year-old guard has a three-year, $40 million offer from the Cavaliers to stay in Cleveland, but reports earlier this summer suggested he was looking for a deal that would net him around $20 million a year would . Nothing has materialized for Sexton so far, but a recent report suggests that Sexton was part of sign-and-trade talks with the Dallas Mavericks at one point.
In a recent episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Cavaliers insider Chris Fedor reported that Cleveland had been in talks with the Mavericks about a possible sexton sign-and-trade. However, the talks came to nothing because Dallas doesn’t have the assets that Cleveland wants to acquire.
“The Cavs have been in talks with Dallas about a sign-and-trade for Collin Sexton,” Fedor said. But if you’re talking about a sign-and-trade, the Cavs need something in return that would be valuable to them. And neither the Jazz nor the Mavericks have the pieces that the Cavs want back in a sign-and-trade for Collin.”
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The Jazz has also been mentioned as a potential suitor for Sexton, but that assumes Utah trades All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell. With recent reports that the team has resumed trade talks with the New York Knicks, it seems things are headed in that direction. As for the Mavericks, it sounds like the only way they can land Sexton is if they manage to bring in a third team that could send Cleveland valuable assets, but the more teams you add to a deal, the more complicated it gets.
If the Mavericks managed to land Sexton, he would certainly fill the void left by Jalen Brunson, who left Dallas for the Knicks this summer. Over four seasons, Sexton has averaged 20 points, 3.3 assists and three rebounds while shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from 3-point territory. He would fit in well in the backcourt alongside Luka Doncic as a secondary playmaker and it would allow the Mavericks to bring Spencer Dinwiddie back on the bench as a sixth man, an area where he excelled in his career. Sexton’s ability to do 3s in a constant clip gives Dallas the ground clearance it needs around Doncic on the starting lineup, and his lead guard experience at Cleveland would take some of the pressure off Doncic of doing everything all the time.
The obvious limitation with Sexton is that he’s coming off a season where he only appeared in 11 games due to a meniscus tear he suffered earlier in the season. However, the former first-round pick has been spotted playing in Pro-Am leagues this summer looks pretty healthy.
While Sexton awaits a more attractive deal in free agency, Fedor suggested his camp could wait until the situations with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Mitchell are resolved before signing a deal. Durant applied for a trade with the Brooklyn Nets over two months ago, while Irving has been linked with the Los Angeles Lakers in trade talks during the offseason. None of those situations have been resolved, and changing one or both players could change the landscape of the league, potentially opening up additional applicants for Sexton to land the contract they want.
So while teams like the Mavericks and Jazz might be interested in Sexton, it seems they’ll be waiting like the rest of the league to see what happens with Durant, Irving and Mitchell.