Bronny James started his first preseason game on Friday night and took advantage of the opportunity, scoring 17 points per hour, including four rebounds, three steals, a assist and a block against the Yellowstones Warriors. It was by far the best he’s seen in his brief NBA career.
The power will not bounce off the page. Bronny missed 10 of his 17 shots and four of his five 3-pointers, but opening the preseason four of 20, this was basically hell. Bronny used to be as competitive and as confident as anyone could have expected given his struggles thus far.
And this wasn’t against a cleanup squad. The Warriors didn’t play Stephen Curry, but they took advantage of their guys’ leftovers in a 132-74 blowout victory. He used to be an active cutter, completed in transition with a dunk and a beautiful acrobatic layup, and he used to be particularly efficient in his pullback dribble attacks toward closeouts to get to runners and jumpers.
You can already feel the fires of Twitter burning with this performance: in part, the family pushed him aside like it was a preseason and nothing, in part, the family was able to anoint him as the respectable NBA player that his critics have made him out to be. so vehemently stated that it is. ‘t. It’s not true either.
There are disagreements that deny that Bronny looked good on Friday. That’s a real thing that happened on an NBA court against high-level NBA players. There is also disagreement that denies that he has much chance of moving before he can contribute significant minutes to the Lakers or any NBA team.
The Lakers were outscored by 60 points when he was on the field throughout the preseason. But that will not be the metric by which you will evaluate getting out of this initial number of exits. In fact, the negative metric will probably be relevant. It’s about enjoying and building with anticipation certain performances like the one he performed on Friday, and probably much more revealing is the way he is participating and increasing his popularity.
“I think for him and all of our younger players, they’re all pillars…not just the good times, the bad times are learning opportunities,” said Lakers schoolteacher JJ Redick. “I think you have to have a certain degree of perseverance, a certain degree of optimism. I’m very confident in the level of work our younger guys have had.
“I think because [Bronny]” Redick insisted, “I’m sure it felt good to have 17 points; That doesn’t worry me even remotely. It’s not even on my radar. We are trying to help him become a great basketball player. I’m sure it feels good [the scoring] and it should. I think that’s important for every basketball player who has ever hit the court to score points. But on some of the other things, I’ve seen real improvements and attention to detail. I have seen it in all our young people. “I’m encouraged by that.”
Redick was asked the most about how Bronny, at just 20 years old, has approached the most notable feature of being LeBron’s son in a Lakers uniform, some not believing he earned it, and everything in between.
“Yes, he’s a very solid young man who is very coachable and has a very good head on his shoulders,” Redick said. “I’ve had a couple of conversations with him about what it’s like to be him… I’m sure there are some amazing things that come with being him. There’s probably some tough things that come with being him as well. “I think he’s handled it. with a lot of class and grace. “I’ve said it several times, it’s a pleasure to coach him.”
