Collin Sexton spent most of last season as a reserve and still scored 15 points a night, and the bench role waiting for him in Los Angeles gives him a real path to the award.
Nobody signs with the Los Angeles Lakers hoping to come off the bench, but Collin Sexton is walking into the one job on this roster where a reserve can win real hardware.
Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves figure to start in the backcourt, with Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Walker Kessler filling out the first five, so the first guard off the bench is the spot that is open.
Sexton fits that spot as well as anyone the team could have found, and the Sixth Man of the Year race is where he should land if he keeps scoring the way he did last season.
Sexton Already Did This Job
The Lakers signed Sexton in July on a two-year, $19 million deal with a player option for the second season, and his numbers explain the contract.
He averaged 15.4 points on 40.1 percent shooting from three across 68 games split between Charlotte and Chicago, and he started only 22 of them.
That means he came off the bench 46 times and still produced like a starter in under 24 minutes a night, and a year earlier in Utah he started 61 of his 63 games and scored 18.4, so the scoring does not depend on the role.
Speaking with ESPN LA last week, Sexton said "I feel like I've been on different teams where it's just been a lot tougher."
He has not played a single playoff game in eight seasons, and he has already shown how much he wants this to work by talking up the defensive impact he expects from Kessler, who missed most of last season after shoulder surgery.
What a Winner Looks Like
Keldon Johnson won it last season for San Antonio after playing all 82 games off the bench and averaging 13.2 points, and voters rewarded a scorer who stayed healthy and stayed in the same role all year.
Sexton scored more than that last season in almost the same minutes, and he will get cleaner looks than he has had in years because Dončić and Reaves draw so much attention.
Voters notice reserves on winning teams, and the Lakers should be one, with better shooting depth around Dončić than they had a year ago and a rim protector in Kessler behind it.
A bench scorer who helps a good team win 50 games gets noticed in a way a bench scorer on a bad team never does.
Where the Bench Needs Him
Training camps do not open until Sept. 29, but the shape of the rotation is easy to see.
Sexton was one of the players who made the trip to Slovenia for the four-day minicamp Dončić hosted, so he already has a head start with this group.
His job will be to keep the scoreboard moving when Dončić rests, and that job comes with the usage that produces sixth man numbers.
The best version of this team has a guard on the bench who can win a quarter on his own, and Sexton has done it before in less friendly settings.
Doing it here should put his name near the top of the award ballot by spring.
