Trade deadline season is officially here, which means the rumors surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers and potential deals are everywhere. No one is safe from seeing their names pop up, even arguably the greatest player in NBA history in LeBron James, but this year is a bit more complicated considering his son Bronny James is also on the roster.
Of course, one of the driving forces for LeBron this year is being able to play with his son as the two have already made NBA history as the first father-son duo to take the court together. The likelihood of LeBron being traded is slim considering he has a no-trade clause, but a second-round pick being thrown in as salary filler in a trade is something that happens regularly throughout the league.
However, these circumstances are obviously different and, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Bronny won’t be included in any Lakers deal that doesn’t also include LeBron:
Of course, Bronny James ($1.2 million) would not be included in a trade that doesn’t include LeBron, team and league sources told The Athletic.
This doesn’t come as any sort of surprise. Put simply, LeBron and Bronny are a package deal and the Lakers don’t plan on trading the former unless he asks out, so the latter will remain with the franchise as well as he continues his development after being taken in the second round of this year’s draft.
The Lakers have plenty of other salaries to include in any deal with D’Angelo Russell, Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt being chief among them, as well as Rui Hachimura, though the Lakers seemingly prefer to keep him around. Even when it comes to minimum salary fillers, the team has veterans in Cam Reddish and Christian Wood as well as last year’s draft picks Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis.
Bronny has come on strong recently with his latest performances in the G League turning heads and the Lakers continue to speak on their belief in his potential to be a legit impact player in this league.
Lakers’ coach JJ Redick discusses Bronny James’ development so far
Bronny James got off to a rough start this season, even in his first games with the South Bay Lakers of the G League. But he has been coming on strong lately and Lakers coach JJ Redick discussed the areas where he has seen development from the rookie so far.
“I think where I see on-court progress is his decision-making with the basketball, the on-ball decisions both as a scorer and a playmaker,” Redick said after Lakers practice on Tuesday. “We’re continuing to see the flashes of what we’re really excited about.
“I think what we’ve kind of stressed with him throughout the summer, preseason and early in the season is getting himself into elite shape so he can be a high-level impact player on the defensive end. And then he has the heel injury and has to lose some of that momentum. [But] we’re excited about what he’s done over the last two games and looking forward to see what he does in the lineup.”
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