After an impressive showing in the Summer League, Bronny James has continued to show growth as a second-year player for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Through seven games, James has averaged six more minutes on the court, along with improved shooting percentages and defense.
He is coming off one of the better games of his career, scoring nine points on 4-of-6 shooting in the Lakers’ 122-102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
James believes he has improved on both ends of the court and credited that to the conditioning work he did in the offseason, via Khobi Price of the Southern California News Group:
“I feel like it’s way better, especially on the defensive end. Hold my own, push the pace on the offensive end in transition, and stuff like that. I felt like I did a great job in the summer, getting in shape, and stuff like that. JJ [Redick] has told me I’m playing as hard as I can right now. So, I’m going to keep doing that.”
While it’s highly unlikely that Bronny will ever reach the heights of his father, he has shown the potential to be a solid role player who thrives on defense and as a secondary creator.
Bronny still needs to be more consistent with his jumper in order for him to be a true NBA rotation player, but the strides he’s made up to this point have been encouraging. JJ Redick encouraged all of his players to get into championship shape after last season and it appears James took that seriously, now reaping the benefits of it.
JJ Redick sees Marcus Smart & Gabe Vincent as role models for Bronny James
Part of Bronny James’ growth this season has to do with veterans Marcus Smart and Gabe Vincent offering to mentor him. Lakers head coach JJ Redick spoke about their impact last month and believes they have helped James in his second NBA season.
“Huge. Gabe as well,” Redick responded when asked about Smart being a role model for Bronny. “I mean those two guys are studs and even when they were limited participants, they were leading. Those guys know that’s part of their role, something we’ve already talked about just in terms of their leadership and they’ve both been great.”
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