Lakers' JJ Redick Talks Bronny James' Biggest Improvement

Los Angeles Lakers rookie combo guard Bronny James, son of 21-time All-Star L.A. power forward LeBron James, has had a modest start at the NBA level this season.

Never expected to be a part of the Lakers' rotation, the 20-year-old has rarely been pressed into service for L.A. proper, generally playing occasional mop-up minutes in blowouts or spending his time with the Lakers' G League affiliate in El Segundo, the South Bay Lakers.

Still, Los Angeles head coach JJ Redick is keeping tabs on his development, per Cody Taylor of The Rookie Wire/USA Today.

"I think he has really embraced the G League. (South Bay coach) Zach (Guthrie) and that staff has done a wonderful job with his development and, obviously, our crew as well, having communication with them and getting updates," Redick said. "When he has been with us, I think he has been fantastic in practices and games. I think he has been really solid."

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James has appeared sparingly for the Lakers, suiting up for just 20 games. Across those contests, he's averaging 1.7 points on 26.3 percent shooting from the field and 72.7 percent shooting from the foul line, plus 0.5 rebounds.

Still, Redick has observed some major growth with James' court vision and decision making.

"The biggest area of improvement is probably his playmaking, and I don't mean that just in terms of passing but his ability to play on and off the ball as a decision-maker, either as a scorer or a passer," Redick said. "With that, his confidence level and level of aggression have grown. For a young player, those are two really important things.

Ahead of the season, fans and pundits alike were divided on whether the Lakers should have used the No. 55 pick in June's 2024 NBA Draft on such a raw commodity. Although he has been lighting up the G League, Bronny James has yet to have much of an impact at the NBA level just yet.

In fairness, he was never expected to at this stage in his pro career, given how raw he looked at the NCAA level with an underperforming USC Trojans squadd in 2023-24.

One player who has been confident in Bronny's upside from the beginning is former journeyman combo guard Flip Murray, who overlapped with his dad on the 2006 Cleveland Cavaliers.

“He’s gonna be good,” Murray said of the younger James in a preseason conversation on The Sports Life & Everything Else Podcast with Mike Roberts and Taylor Suber, per league insider Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson.

“A lot of people are down on him, just for the fact that he’s LeBron James’ son," Murray said. "But as I tell people all the time, he really doesn’t have that much basketball underneath him. He didn’t play that much at USC. He played, what? Two years at Sierra Canyon when he was there? So, he hasn’t even learned the game yet. But he’s a talent."

The 6-foot-2 pro is turning heads in the G League. In his nine regular season contests for South Bay, Bronny is averaging 20.6 points while slashing .431/.361/.800 shooting splits, 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.7 steals a night.

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"He’s been around the game since he was a little kid," Murray added. "So he knows the game, so it’s gonna be easy for him to adjust, because he’s been around the game for so long. So once he starts playing the speed of the game and starts playing with those types of players and understanding the game as he goes along and plays, he’s gonna adjust very, very fast because he’s been around the game for so long.”

The younger James — who's already made history alongside his dad by becoming the first father-son duo to ever share a court together in an NBA game — hasn't adjusted as quickly as Murray may have predicted. But his signs of growth at the G League level are still quite encouraging.

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