{"id":684436,"date":"2026-03-28T17:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/684436\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T17:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:09:23","slug":"bronny-james-has-proven-he-deserves-to-be-a-laker-without-lebron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/684436\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronny James has proven he deserves to be a Laker without LeBron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You used to root for Bronny James<\/a> to come into games ironically. Or because you just wanted to see history.<\/p>\n

But now I bet you want to see Bronny<\/a> come into the game to hoop.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pretty cool plot twist.<\/p>\n

Especially because LeBron James\u2019 son<\/a> has had to develop his game with the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders<\/a>, the only expectation being that he would fail<\/a> to amount to anything resembling an NBA player.<\/p>\n

But over the past couple seasons, Bronny has developed into an NBA reserve<\/a> who is worth rostering, whether or not his dad is part of the program.<\/p>\n

Shocker, right?<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers guard Bronny James blocks a shot by Spurs forward Kelly Olynyk at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 10.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

For the second consecutive game Friday, Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> called the second-year guard\u2019s number for important minutes of action.<\/p>\n

Not to complete garbage time chores. Not as a gimmick to please the King. But because he needed a ball-handler he could trust after the regular rotation got wonky in the second quarter of the Lakers\u2019 116-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

For the second consecutive game, Bronny helped buoy the Lakers<\/a>. In four minutes, he had a deflection and drained a three-pointer that not only keyed a much-needed 9-0 Lakers run but also was the first father-to-son assisted basket in NBA history, coming on a pass from LeBron.<\/p>\n

Trailblazers, like at Sierra Canyon High School<\/a>. That\u2019s where Bronny and the Nets\u2019 Ziaire Williams<\/a> were teammates before Bronny and his dad, \u201cBig Bron<\/a>,\u201d were Williams\u2019 opponents Friday.<\/p>\n

His former teammate sees in Bronny what his current teammates do: A hard worker who needs only to nurture his confidence to be able to contribute in the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be great,\u201d Williams said. \u201cEspecially starting off on the defensive end. He can guard one through four, pick up full [court,] have good ball pressure. On the offensive end, he\u2019s a gamer. He can make shots, he can drive the ball. He can get his teammates open. The biggest thing with him is just keeping that confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s confident and he\u2019s in flow state, in rhythm, he\u2019s a great, great player. \u2026 He\u2019s just gotta keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronny\u2019s been working in the G League the last two seasons, bouncing between the big leagues and the developmental circuit, where last season his averages were solid \u2014 including 21.9 points, per game \u2014 but nowhere near as efficient as they\u2019ve been this season. In 13 games, he\u2019s averaging 14.8 points on 54.7% shooting, including 41.7% from three-point range.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers forward LeBron James greets his son, guard Bronny James, on the court during a game against the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 25.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just getting back to where it was before the incident,\u201d LeBron said Friday, referencing Bronny\u2019s cardiac arrest caused by a congenital heart defect<\/a> on July 24, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been able to shoot the ball. He shot the ball at a high level pretty much throughout his years of playing ball. So I just think there\u2019s the confidence in the rhythm and just getting the strength back and his wind and everything. Everything is just coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s carried over to the big club; Bronny is shooting 41.9% from three-point range in those instances when Redick has called on him \u2014 as he also did in a 137-130 victory over the Indiana Pacers<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In that victory, Bronny had four points, two steals and a block in 13 minutes. Redick credited the 21-year-old with settling the team with a pull-up jumper with 3:55 to go in the game, which was the second this season LeBron and Bronny played together.<\/p>\n

The first time it happened, in the season opener in 2024<\/a>, the prevailing thought was that it wouldn\u2019t happen again for a long time \u2014 and if it did, something had probably gone very wrong for the Lakers that game.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the case. No, because Bronny has made a convincing case as an NBA player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to play basketball my whole life,\u201d Bronny said. \u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true. I\u2019m so privileged to be able to play basketball for a job and I love every single second of it. My teammates embrace it. I\u2019m best friends with all my teammates and my coaches. I\u2019m just happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s become an effective plug-and-play piece \u2014 and not on a tanking Nets team that regularly runs out G League-caliber players, but on a playoff-bound Lakers team that has won 14 of its last 16 games.<\/p>\n

The No. 55 draft pick in 2024, Bronny has surpassed Dalton Knecht<\/a>, the 17th pick in that same draft, in the Lakers\u2019 pecking order.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s become a player who can be counted on, and he\u2019s especially valuable to a team that happens to badly need youth and athleticism, as the Lakers do.<\/p>\n

You want to talk twists? How about whatever happens with LeBron \u2014 when, or if, he retires \u2014 the Lakers should seriously consider keeping Bronny in the fold. Seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You used to root for Bronny James to come into games ironically. Or because you just wanted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[8091,7,1006,247,14505,142,86777,113,126,3866,300,516,6,6564,114,65,2084,1602,706,1564,4610],"class_list":["post-684436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-ball","tag-basketball","tag-bronny-james","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-confidence","tag-game","tag-important-minute","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-lakers","tag-lebron","tag-nba","tag-nba-player","tag-pacers","tag-point","tag-season","tag-shooting","tag-teammate","tag-victory","tag-ziaire-williams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116307911938174994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684436","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=684436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}