In the first quarter of Monday night's Los Angeles Lakers-Sacramento Kings preseason game, Lakers guard Bronny James dove to the floor to secure a steal under his own basket after stripping Kings guard Nique Clifford. It was a moment of toughness, grit, and defensive excellence that symbolized Bronny's sparkling potential on that end of the floor.
The play was also Collin Sexton-like in the way that Bronny leveraged his strength, quick hands, and aggressiveness to get the better of Clifford. Almost as soon as Bronny had sealed the turnover, color commentator and former Laker Danny Green brought up Sexton during the broadcast as a guy who Bronny will learn a ton from.
Collin Sexton is a fitting mentor for Bronny James on the Lakers
When people talk about NBA comparisons for Bronny, they've often landed on guys like Davion Mitchell or a smaller version of Jrue Holiday (the latter's a bit generous). Sexton hasn't often been mentioned, probably because he was more advanced offensively than Bronny at the same age. But defensively, and with regard to their physical stature, there are plenty of similarities.
Sexton understands what it means to be an undersized guy on an NBA floor (he's not tiny at 6-foot-3, but that's still relatively small) -- he's always more than made up for his height deficiency by leveraging his strength, athleticism, and bold approach to competing on every possession.
Bronny will have to do much of the same to become the best version of himself at the highest level. It's a good thing the younger James has apparently been in close in communication with Sexton since the offseason.
"Collin's one of the guys that I've been talking to a lot about what my role is going to be," Bronny said during a training camp interview. "And he's a newer guy here, so I'm helping him out with our schemes and stuff like that. So, we're helping each other out."
If you're one of the people who believe Bronny has been miscast as a point guard ... well, there's another potential comparison to Sexton, who's certainly more of a combo guard or a scoring guard than a true point.
As James continues to get out from under his father's shadow, he'll need the right people around him to steer him in the right direction. There's reason to believe that Sexton can be one of those people. And it sounds like Sexton is learning a thing or two from Bronny these days, too.
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