Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Collin Sexton has been taking a lot of heat lately, with some coming from the direction of his own teammates. Cavs head coach Larry Drew came to the defense of his young stud, reminding his team’s veterans to give the kid some leeway.
Speaking to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, Drew shared how he took some of his veterans aside to ask that they take it easy on the youngster:
“I didn’t read the article, what was wrote, but I was told what was in it, and I just didn’t think that was fair at all to go at a 19-year-old kid like that,” Drew said Wednesday night. “As I told a couple of the guys, hey, you were 19 at one point.”
Sexton has been identified by some as one of the main reasons why the Cavs have had a miserable start to the new campaign. According to some reports, there are a number of players on the team who have grown increasingly frustrated with the former Alabama standout and his alleged attitude problems.
To try and address this growing concern, Drew reminded his players that they too were young once. There’s already a ton of pressure on Sexton as the team’s anointed point guard of the future, and instead of adding to his burden, his teammates ought to help him get through these growing pains.
“He turns the ball over, I don’t want him thinking about what his teammates think,” Drew said. “And I’ve expressed that to the team. We’re going to live with some mistakes, we’ll correct him, but we cannot get down on this kid just because he makes mistakes.”
For his part, Sexton appeared to have gotten the message loud and clear. The rookie was outstanding on Wednesday in his first NBA start, scoring a team-high 15 points en route to one of his best games of his young career. Hopefully, we see more of the same from Sexton as the Cavs try and get themselves out of the deep hole they’re currently stuck in.