{"id":841363,"date":"2026-09-22T19:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/841363\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T19:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:51:15","slug":"lakers-collin-sexton-looking-for-nba-breakout-after-cavs-stint-went-awry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/841363\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers’ Collin Sexton looking for NBA breakout after Cavs stint went awry"},"content":{"rendered":"

For players like Collin Sexton<\/a>, a top-10 pick in the 2018 draft, it can get easy to get lost in the shuffle of the NBA.<\/p>\n

As part of the Lakers\u2019 roster reconstruction<\/a>, he\u2019s hoping to break through in ways he hasn\u2019t before.<\/p>\n

Sexton, who was a 2017 McDonald\u2019s All-American and one-and-done collegiate player at Alabama, became the first building block of the Cavaliers\u2019 post-LeBron James rebuild after Cleveland selected Sexton with the No. 8 pick in the 2018 draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collin Sexton started his career with the hopes of being a star for the Cavaliers. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He finished fifth in the voting for the 2018-29 Rookie of the Year, and then had back-to-back seasons of averaging at least 20 points (including a career-high 24.3 points in 2020-21) \u2013 albeit for Cavaliers teams that won fewer than 31% of their games in each of Sexton\u2019s first three seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sexton, and the Cavaliers, were poised for a breakout in 2021-22 after Cleveland drafted Darius Garland in 2019, trading for Jarrett Allen in January 2021, selecting Evan Mobley in 2021 draft and acquiring Lauri Markkanen during the 2021 offseason.<\/p>\n

The breakout happened for the Cavaliers, but not Sexton, who played only 11 games before having season-ending left knee surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers had their first winning season since James left, going 44-38 and missing the playoffs after being eliminated from the Play-In Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collin Sexton didn\u2019t get get to be a part of the Cavaliers\u2019 2021-22 breakout season. AP<\/p>\n

That 2021-22 Cavaliers squad remains the only team Sexton\u2019s finished a season with that had a winning record \u2013 let alone make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

With the Cavaliers looking to build off their breakout season, Cleveland traded Sexton<\/a> (along with Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji and multiple draft picks) to the Jazz for star guard Donovan Mitchell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What followed for Sexton were three productive seasons with the Jazz: He averaged 17.5 points and 4.2 assists from 2022-25.<\/p>\n

But each of those seasons all ended the same way \u2013 with Sexton and his Jazz teammates watching the playoffs from home after a losing year.<\/p>\n

After being traded to the Hornets during the 2025 offseason, it appeared Sexton was going to play NBA postseason basketball for the first time in his career after being a part of Charlotte\u2019s midseason turnaround.<\/p>\n

Collin Sexton had productive seasons with the Jazz, but they didn\u2019t lead to playoff appearances. AP<\/p>\n

But the Hornets traded Sexton to the lowly Bulls ahead of the trade deadline in February, making it eight straight seasons Sexton was going to watch the playoffs from home after the Bulls finished with a 31-51 record.<\/p>\n

So as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, Sexton prioritized choosing a team where winning mattered.<\/p>\n

It led to him signing a two-year, $19.2 million contract with the Lakers<\/a>, with a player option for the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely feel like it was super important \u2013 finding a place where I can compete and not be at the crib in April right after the season ends,\u201d Sexton said. \u201cSo at the end, just having the opportunity to be a part of this organization and be a part of the team, I was super grateful. And I\u2019m super thankful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collin Sexton finished last season with the Bulls. Jason Szenes \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd just talking to [coach] JJ [Redick[, I can tell he believes in me in my abilities and what I can bring to the team. I feel like my energy can be contagious to this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike eight years ago when he arrived in Cleveland, Sexton didn\u2019t arrive in Los Angeles with the expectations of being a star.<\/p>\n

The Lakers don\u2019t need him to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for Sexton to make his first appearance in the playoffs, the Lakers will need him to seize the chances in front of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I would say just opportunity \u2013 opportunity to go out, win and be able to compete each and every night,\u201d Sexton said on why he joined the Lakers. \u201cAnd I feel like that\u2019s something that needs to be shown, that I bring each and every day, is that I want to compete. But also the want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For players like Collin Sexton, a top-10 pick in the 2018 draft, it can get easy to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,160,306,305,193,3846,1585,150,6,66],"class_list":["post-841363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-cavaliers","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-collin-sexton","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117316438208783714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}