Rookie Bronny James Will Spend Time In G League To Develop His Skills

'The Lakers plan on using him primarily in the G League as he remains far from a rotation-caliber player,' according to The Athletic's Jovan Buha.

After seemingly picking Bronny James to fulfill the wish of their star player LeBron James to play with his son, the Los Angeles Lakers have complicated that plan.

According to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, due to Bronny’s lackluster play in the NBA Summer League, Lakers plans to use him primarily in the G League, the NBA’s developmental league. The reason, Bruh writes, si that “he remains far from a rotation-caliber player.”

The Lakers drafted Bronny in the second round of the NBA Draft with the 55th pick, a move that has elicited controversy. As LeBron headed for free agency and had commented several times over the years about wanting to have his son be his NBA teammate, it became abundantly clear that the Lakers had to draft the son to resign the father.

Even James’ agent, Rich Paul, was working the phone lines before the draft, discouraging teams from picking Bronny and that to sign him they would have to give him a guaranteed contract instead of a two-way deal.

The doubts from critics started after Bronny’s freshman year at the University of Southern California. The freshman averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. In Summer League, Bronny scored 25 points on 10 of 21 shooting over the last two games he played before the team decided to sit him down for the final two games. He shot 7-for-31 from the field and 0-for-15 from 3-point range in the three games prior to his offensive flourish. He missed one game due to some trace of swelling in his left knee.

“He had two pretty good games last two,” Lakers Summer League coach Dane Johnson said about Bronny. “I think it’s just going to help him going into the summer so we can work on different things with him. Just that confidence and knowing he can play at this level. It’s still going to take a lot of time and a lot of reps.”