Collin Sexton calls the 2023-2024 season a good one
By Chad Porto
Collin Sexton believes the 2023-2024 season was a "good" season for himself. In a way, we agree with him. This season was far better than his first with the Utah Jazz. His shooting splits, scoring and efficiency were all the way up and he seemed to really improve not only as a passer but also as a three-point shooter. Two things he didn't do great with in Cleveland.
Sexton spoke openly about the season, and how he felt finally figuring out Will Hardy's scheme, telling the media at his end-of-the-season press conference (via Sports Illustrated)
""I feel like I would evaluate [the season] as a pretty good one. First, I would say staying healthy. That would be the number one evaluation. Then, number two is just getting better as the season progressed in all categories. I feel like the start of the season, I started to figure it out. Figuring out how Will [Hardy] wanted me to play, and started to figure out what this team needed from me. Then, over the season, and how the games just stacked up, I just continued to get better, and continued to get better every single night.""
While Sextons' individual season may have been better, the Utah Jazz still ended up causing a giant tan job at the end of the year, cratering out and punting away a valid opportunity to make the playoffs this season. All to possibly keep a draft pick they may not be able to. If that pick falls outside of the Top 10, it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder. if it stays in the Top 10, it stays with the Jazz.
The entire collapse of the team at and after the trade deadline was for that one pick. So, it's fair to say that while we agree with Sexton having an improved year, we're not going to say it was a good one, and we're wondering why Sexton would.
As Sexton didn't exceed prior performances, like when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He had an improved season from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024. Sure, it was better, but it wasn't good. Sexton's scoring was, yet his defense was far worse than his offense was good. He wasn't able to guard anyone at times and that cost the Jazz a lot on defense.
We like Sexton, and we hope he sticks around and is able to contribute to a winner in Utah, but we're not going to agree with his surmising that this was a good season for him or the team.