Day 2 of free agency was an important one for the Los Angeles Lakers as they acquired their center of the future in Walker Kessler, along with signing Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton.
Rumors suggested that Grimes and Mamukelashvili were penciled in as Lakers while L.A. was waiting to sign-and-trade for Kessler. In the flurry of moves, Sexton was the surprise, but he took to Instagram to announce that he is ready to play in Los Angeles:
Bench scoring has been an issue for the Lakers for numerous seasons and it always catches up to them in the playoffs. Sexton is a microwave scorer off the bench, an efficient shooter and can provide a bit of pressure on the rim with his downhill speed.
In 68 games last season between the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls, he averaged 15.4 points on 48.5% from the field and 40.1% from 3-point range. While he mainly comes off the bench, if Austin Reaves and/or Luka Doncic miss time, Sexton can step up as a spot starter and up his offensive production.
As a 6’3″ guard, a main concern is defensively because analytically, he does not grade out as a great perimeter defender. He also isn’t known to be much of a playmaker, although he had nice chemistry with Kessler dating back to when they played together on the Utah Jazz.
Lakers had reported trade interest in Collin Sexton back in 2024
When LeBron James and Anthony Davis were still together as Lakers, a downside of that era was the organization not maximizing it by not putting all their assets in. Particularly when it came to trades, general manager Rob Pelinka was reluctant to part with draft capital following the disastrous Russell Westbrook trade.
Once Los Angeles got off Westbrook, the point guard position became an uncertainty with D’Angelo Russell’s production being up and down. A guard that they monitored in the 2024 offseason was Sexton, who came off a great season with the Jazz, averaging 18.7 points and 4.9 assists on 39.4% from 3-point distance.
Now, they were able to sign him and not part with any assets in the process. Nearly two years later, it looks like his scoring remains efficient and hopefully, his playmaking numbers see an uptick when he runs bench units by himself at times. Regardless, it seems that Sexton is excited to join the purple and gold.
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