The Los Angeles Lakers have spent on score-first guards for years under Rob Pelinka, and he just repeated the same mistake with Collin Sexton. The 6’3 guard got a two-year, $19.2 million contract using the room exception. It was a significant payday that had fans raising their eyebrows. The Lakers want to contend, but Sexton has never played in a playoff game. He has been dumped by the Jazz, Hornets, and Bulls since June 2025. Sadly, purple-and-gold supporters have seen this movie before.
Pelinka loves score-first players. He traded for Dennis Schroder in 2020 and signed him back in 2022. Pelinka inked Kendrick Nunn using the taxpayer mid-level exception in 2021. He traded for D’Angelo Russell and signed Gabe Vincent in 2023. Those four guards are all 6’3 or shorter and known for their offensive game. Each had a regrettable stop in LA that forced the Lakers to move on.
Sexton is just the latest member. He is a bucket-getter with questionable defense and impact on winning. In two of the four cases, the Lakers instantly regretted the move. Schroder and D-Lo had bright moments, but the result was the same. Pelinka moved on because they weren’t the answer in helping Los Angeles win another championship.
History suggests Lakers will regret the Collin Sexton signing
Pelinka took over as LA’s lead executive in 2019 and deserves credit for building the 2020 championship roster. He quickly went away from that blueprint and showed his love for score-first guards.
The Lakers traded for Dennis Schroder from the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2020. He played well during the 2020-21 season. So good that Pelinka offered him a four-year, $84 million extension that Schroder disastrously declined. His lack of shooting and playmaking hurt the Lakers in the playoffs as the Suns eliminated them in the opening round.
Schroder ended up earning just a one-year, $5.9 million contract from the Celtics in free agency before returning to Los Angeles the following season on a minimum deal. He had another strong regular season but struggled in the playoffs. Schroder moved on to Toronto and has bounced around the league ever since.
Pelinka signed Kendrick Nunn using the taxpayer mid-level exception in 2021. It turned into an immediate disaster after a preseason knee injury forced him to miss the entire year. The Lakers traded him away after just 39 games, and he’s been out of the NBA since the 2022-23 season.
The Lakers traded for Russell and gave him an extension after the 2023 run to the conference finals. They dismissed his playoff shooting woes as an outlier, but were disappointed in 2024 when they recurred. LA dumped D-Lo in the Dorian Finney-Smith trade and was clearly ready to move on.
Vincent signed a three-year, $33 million contract after an NBA Finals run with the Heat. It went bad almost immediately. He played just 11 games in year one and failed to impact winning on the Lakers. Vincent was dumped at the 2026 trade deadline as the purple and gold happily moved on.
Sexton fits this player type. Fans would think Rob Pelinka has learned his lesson after four similar mistakes, but he is banking on this one being different.
Collin Sexton signing gives Lakers some Luka Doncic insurance
Doncic is coming off a season-ending hamstring injury, and the Lakers needed another ball-handler when Luka is out. There is much talk about his injury history, but it is a bit overblown. Luka has played 64 or more games in five of the last six seasons. He will miss some time, and Sexton’s importance will increase in those moments.
The Lakers lacked playmaking behind their three stars last season. They tried to get more versatile this summer by adding Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Sexton. They should be able to take a bit of usage off the plates of Doncic and Austin Reaves, but Sexton is just a repeat of Pelinka’s history with score-first options.
Lakers will quickly be looking to dump Collin Sexton
Sexton is a career 38.9 percent shooter who averages over 18 points per game. He is a bucket. His offensive numbers could put him in the running for Sixth Man of the Year, but the Lakers will quickly look to move him. Sexton doesn’t impact winning the way LA needs. A contender can’t play an offense-only option 30 minutes per game in the modern NBA. It just doesn’t work.
The Jazz and Hornets have traded Sexton away since June 2025. The Bulls didn’t bring him back in free agency. Expecting the 27-year-old to become a different player suddenly is unreasonable.
Sexton is who he is at this point. A score-first guard teams get rid of as they try to contend. The Lakers will continue that trend in short order. Luckily, his contract may provide some value for that.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Rob Pelinka repeated the same mistake for the fifth time since 2020 and are hoping for a different result. Fans know exactly how this ends with Collin Sexton. Hopefully, Pelinka finally learns his lesson, but that seems unlikely at this point.
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