Bronny James and his father, LeBron James, made history on opening night as the first ever father/son duo to play in an NBA Game together. Since then JJ Redick has been able to find some other garbage time minutes for Bronny through three other games, he even scored a bucket (back where he was born, in cleveland).
However, the play was always for him to spend most of this season in the G-League – Bronny is a development project and needs the time on the court and attention he can get at that level. That will begin this weekend when the Lakers assign Bronny to the South Bay Lakers, the team’s G-League affiliate, a story ESPN’s Shams Charania reported first. Bronny will be on the Lakers bench Friday night at home against the 76ers and then play for the South Bay Lakers on Saturday.
For at least the beginning of the G-League season, Bronny will only play for the South Bay Lakers when they are at home, will not travel with the team, according to Charania. He will likely shuttle back and forth between the teams, practicing more with the G-League squad in the coming weeks. After Saturday’s game, South Bay doesn’t play at home again until the following Sunday (Nov. 17), but the Lakers host the Grizzlies at that time (Nov. 13) — in a bit of a grudge match – and Bronny could be on a Laker bench for that game. He will shuttle up and down.
This is what Bronny needs. It was no secret when the Lakers drafted him that Bronny isn’t an NBA-level player right now, he’s a development project who needs work on his shot (1-of-6 during his NBA minutes, for example), his handle, and even the defensive end of the court which is seen as his strength – guarding the bigger, faster players of the NBA has been a challenge for him so far. He has NBA power, it would always take time for it to come out, this is part of that process and will be for this season and, quite possibly, part of next season as well.
Lakers nation isn’t exactly known for its patience, but it will have to find it with Bronny. His time in the G-League is good for him and the Lakers.
