Cavaliers veterans reportedly aren’t impressed with rookie teammate Collin Sexton‘s grasp of NBA basketball.
Cleveland offered J.R. Smith a chance to leave the team, clearly holding some concern about his influence while out of the rotation.
Combine those stories, and…
Smith:
The Mavericks’ Luka Doncic and Suns’ Deandre Ayton are frontrunners for Rookie of the Year. Young also has a chance.
But Sexton – though much further behind – is still plausibly in the race.
Was Smith just giving his honest opinion on the race? I’m fine with that, though I also don’t share a locker room with him.
Was Smith trying to motivate Sexton? This could be a well-intentioned – and maybe eventually effective – tweet as it pertains to Sexton.
Or was Smith just unthoughtful or, even worse, malicious about how this would affect his teammate? There’s obviously a difference in each of those scenarios, and a whole spectrum between them. But it’d all fit under a not-ideal label.
This isn’t anything worth fretting about unless the Sexton or Cavs management views this tweet as part of a larger pattern. Which maybe.