Ahead of the 2021-22 season, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix spoke with a few scouts around the NBA to get their unfiltered opinions on every team in the league. One scout who evaluated the Cavaliers had some rather unkind things to say about Collin Sexton, who averaged a career-high 24.3 points and 4.4 assists per game in 2020-21.
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The scout’s thoughts on Sexton and the Cavs, per Mannix:
Those quotes quickly started circulating on social media and eventually made their way to Nance, who played alongside Sexton from 2018-2021. Nance clearly didn’t agree with the scout’s harsh assessment.
“Whoever said this is a moron with zero knowledge of anything going on in Cleveland,” Nance tweeted. “I’d hide behind anonymity too if I was this bad at my job.”
Sexton has been a polarizing player since the Cavs selected him with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. Early in his rookie season, Sexton reportedly left Cleveland’s veterans frustrated because they felt he didn’t “know how to play” and didn’t seem interested in working on his weaknesses. He has posted impressive numbers, but critics have questioned whether he actually contributes to winning. He was also the subject of trade rumors as recently as this past summer.
However, Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman told reporters during the team’s media day that the organization and Sexton want to reach an agreement on a contract extension in order to keep him in Cleveland.
“We’re certainly working with his representation to see that through, but this is someone that’s been with us since the start of this thing in terms of where we’ve been the last three years,” Altman said last month. “We love him. We want him here long-term. We’ll deal with that behind closed doors, but the feelings are mutual in terms of something long-term.”
The deadline for NBA teams to sign players to rookie-scale extensions is Monday at 6 p.m. ET.
