Collin Sexton will turn 27 years old on Jan. 4. But as the former Alabama guard prepares for his eighth NBA season, just three players on the Charlotte Hornets’ training-camp roster have been in the league longer than he has.

The Hornets obtained Sexton in a trade with the Utah Jazz in July.

“He’s been, like, unbelievable since he’s gotten here,” Charlotte coach Charles Lee said last week. “The transition’s been seamless. We’re all about daily improvement, and Collin is about daily improvement as well. And so, like, it’s like a perfect marriage. He comes in every day hungry, curious, excited to work. He just absolutely loves this game, and I can tell he loves his teammates, too. He’s come in and he’s already bonded with a bunch of the guys, and he’s earned their respect from Jump Street. I think that it’s because of how consistent he is with his routines and habits.

“And then it’s also his consistent competitiveness. Like it doesn’t matter if it’s a shooting drill. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pickup game. It doesn’t matter if it’s who can say the first thing that comes to their mind. Whatever it is, like, he’s competing, and I think that the guys just recognize that. They love that about him.

“And so he brings this dog to our group that they’ve really embraced. And so I’ve loved the impact that he’s had, I think, just on our whole culture and on our team as well so far.”

In his third season with the Jazz, Sexton averaged 18.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 63 games, including 61 starts. Sexton’s 1,159 points led Utah in the 2024-25 season even though he missed 19 games.

In seven seasons since entering the NBA from Alabama as the eighth pick in the 2018 draft, Sexton has averaged 18.8 points in 407 regular-season games, the highest for a Crimson Tide alumnus in league history.

“Something that I bring to this lineup will be my competitive nature each and every day,” Sexton said. “I’m ready to compete and be a consistent competitor. I feel like it’s going to continue to rub off on the other guys. My energy as well on both ends of the court, whether it’s getting a shot for myself or creating a shot for my teammate, I’m going to have that juice and that energy.”

The Hornets’ nine-year playoff drought is the NBA’s longest. After winning only 19 games last season, Charlotte is counting on keeping LaMelo Ball, Tre Mann and Brandon Miller on the court this season after injuries wrecked their 2024-25 campaigns. The Hornets also added veterans Mason Plumlee, Pat Connaughton and Spencer Dinwiddie and draft picks Kon Knueppel, Liam McNeeley, Sion James and Ryan Kalkbrenner.

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Charlotte could put a guard-heavy lineup on the court with Ball, Mann, Sexton, Connaughton and Dinwiddie available and Miller and Knueppel able to swing into the backcourt, too.

“It’s not going to be one person that takes us to the promised land,” Sexton said. “It’s going to be a group effort, and we have to do it together. And we’ve realized that early on that if we want to go far, if we want to do something this season, we have to do it together. We need each and every person to have some type of role and play their role to the best of their ability.”

The Hornets tip off their five-game preseason schedule against the Oklahoma City Thunder at 4 p.m. CDT Sunday at North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, South Carolina.

“We’re going to win some games,” Sexton said about his expectations for the 2025-26 season, “and we’re going to do it together.”

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