INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- It was the day after the NBA trade deadline, a time when the front office was still overjoyed about acquiring two-time All-Star center Andre Drummond, and Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman was asked to evaluate the season. Complicated, right? Even though the Cavs were just 13-39 at the time, occupying the last spot in the Eastern Conference, Altman used the term “successful.”

Beg your pardon?

Players have questioned head coach John Beilein, irritated with his college approach. Rookie swingman Dylan Windler’s season was derailed before it even began. Franchise face Kevin Love has had a few blowups. One of them led to a fine, which morphed into a viral temper tantrum later that night. The Cavs, after starting 4-5, crumbled quickly. Chatter about Beilein being one-and-done started to pick up. So many blowout losses. Then, the overall record, inching near the league’s worst.

Successful? What about this season could be termed that?

Altman’s explanation: This year was never about the win-loss record. It was about Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr., among others, taking positive strides individually and within the team dynamic.

“If we’re gauging the success of those guys, I’m in a good space,” Altman said Friday. “I’m excited about our future because of where they’ve come from Day One -- first game of the season to where they are now and where they’re going.”

Sexton being named to the Rising Stars roster -- albeit two weeks late -- is proof of that growth.

“He’s making steps,” Beilein said following Tuesday’s practice. “You’re not going to see it if you see him every day. But if you watched him a year ago, I’m sure you’ve seen a big difference there. And he doesn’t have the ball in his hands as much as before, but I think you’ll see that more in the future.”

Despite his success, Sexton continues to be one of the most chastised players on the roster. Maybe in franchise history. Right up there with Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and a few others early in their careers.

“I don’t understand why all the team’s problems fall on him,” a source said recently.

Some of the critiques are certainly valid -- defensive issues, lower-than-desired assist numbers, dribbling into traffic with his head down, shots getting swatted at the rim.

Others are a bit much, especially when factoring in his age and circumstances. A few aren’t even his fault -- draft positioning, being the centerpiece of Irving trade, not flipping that Brooklyn pick to help make one final push for LeBron James, playing style, being paired in a tiny backcourt with Garland that exacerbates some flaws.

There were even ridiculous questions about whether Sexton should be dealt prior to Thursday afternoon. Ignore for a moment the combination of his age, team-friendly contract and level of play making him an incredible value at this point, but Sexton, who is just 21 years old, leads the Cavs in scoring and continues to do it efficiently. Plus, there’s no way to know his ceiling at this point because he keeps blasting through.

As Beilein said Tuesday, the primary knock on Sexton is his passing metrics. Even those have started to go in the right direction.

“In the last five games, he’s 2 to 1 (assist-to-turnover) ratio, I don’t think he’s ever had that, over even a small number of games,” Beilein said. “We’re excited about Collin going to All-Star Weekend. He deserves it as much as anybody. He’s had a tremendous season thus far, and I sense he’s going to finish even better.”

The combo guard who was selected eighth overall in the 2018 NBA Draft has started in all 53 games for Cleveland this season, averaging a team-best 19.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.0 steal in 32.2 minutes per game. He’s in the midst of the longest -- and best -- assist streak of his career, dishing out at least two in 12 straight games while averaging 4.0 over that stretch. He has the third-highest scoring average among all second-year NBA players, trailing only All-Stars Trae Young (29.7) and Luka Doncic (28.8), and is the only sophomore with at least 19.0 points while shooting 45% from the field and at least 85% from the foul line.

Sexton also leads all sophomores with 123 career double-digit scoring efforts. He has scored at least 20 points in 25 outings this season, including 20 times in the last 29 games. Since December 23, Sexton has the seventh-highest scoring average in the entire Eastern Conference at 22.4 points per game.

Beilein has only been around Sexton for a few months. But the trait that stands out most to him: Sexton’s insatiable drive to be great.

Doesn’t matter when or where, Sexton is putting in work. He sometimes shoots alongside G League guys. He goes to the facility after games. Hours after finally receiving validation on Tuesday, being named Tyler Herro’s injury replacement for Rising Stars, Sexton was in an empty gym hoisting shots. All of his teammates had already left for the day or were elsewhere -- getting treatment, lifting, eating lunch.

For the second straight year, the Cavs have actually felt the need to talk with Sexton about toning down his on-court work. But that hard work continues to pay off.

At one point, it seemed like Sexton’s splendid perimeter rookie shooting numbers were a fluke. He was hitting around 36% from 3-point range, numbers similar to his one year at Alabama when many panned him for a shaky outside shot. In 14 December games, Sexton made just three triples. Total.

Following one of those games, he smiled when asked about his level of concern. Nothing to worry about, Sexton fired back.

He drilled 44.6% from deep in January. He’s hitting 55% in four February games.

“He’s very confident. What I like is when he went through that shooting slump when he couldn’t buy a bucket early, he’s shooting 40-something percent the last five games and I think his number is 37 percent overall,” Beilein said. “I like that because he works at it. He really works at his time developing, almost too much sometimes where he might leave his game on the practice court.”

Sexton has been proving doubters wrong since entering the NBA. Each time someone tells him he can’t, he internally laughs, keeps it in and eventually unleashes it on the opposition.

“I said, ‘You should use it as motivation going forward.’ And now that he has (the Rising Stars spot), let’s still use it as motivation that you weren’t selected at first and you deserved it," Beilein said. "Now go show either there or the rest of the season, how much you deserved it.”

After being left off Rising Stars as a rookie, and then getting overlooked once again a few weeks back, Sexton finally got deserved recognition as one of the league’s promising young players on Tuesday.

Success indeed.

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