Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen once Bronny James began his college career at USC. With father LeBron James playing for the nearby Los Angeles Lakers and approaching 40 years old, the dots were easy to connect: Bronny would leave school early and the Lakers would draft him no matter what in order for the father-son duo to play together.
The only thing that was holding up Bronny’s decision to declare for the NBA Draft was his own development. He struggled to make an impact in his freshman season at USC, with a traumatic cardiac arrest incident delaying his collegiate debut. With such an obscure sole season at USC, many were imploring Bronny to stay in school for at least one more year and work on his game. Instead, he took the plunge. A special moment occurred on opening night for the James family, but since then, Bronny has barely been heard from.
A string of impressive G-League performances saw Bronny come back in the favor of Lakers head coach JJ Redick, ultimately leading to appearances in the Lakers’ most recent two games this past week. It didn’t go well, though, with James making just 1-of-11 shots in 27 minutes of action while committing three turnovers and three fouls.
Bronny James should have stayed at USC to develop his game further
This has prompted some backlash from national media members, particularly aimed at LeBron for pushing his son into a position he isn’t ready for. In the view of Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill, Bronny simply needed to stay in school in order to have a real NBA future.
The game is too fast for him, and he lacks an overall aggressiveness that would take up the slack for the experience he doesn’t yet have – and at his height, he has to play with a desperation. You know where he would’ve gotten that? College… He needs to play basketball and lots of it – and the NBA schedule is too unforgiving for teams to practice much, let alone one with a 40-year-old LeBron James as one of the bell cows.
There’s no turning back now, so James will have to lean on sporadic playing time in the NBA and G-League action in order to get better. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.