Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James has made massive strides over the last year. After being one of the most talked-about — and absurdly criticized — second-round picks in NBA history, he got off to a slow start. He struggled at Summer League in 2024, and did not perform much better when given NBA opportunities last season.
However, his time in the G League was extremely positive, as Bronny gained valuable experience as South Bay’s starting point guard. And that experience and development is showing itself in a big way at Las Vegas Summer League in 2025. On Monday night, James had his best game, posting 17 points with five rebounds and five assists on 6-for-10 from the field with three 3-pointers made.
He’s averaging 13.0 points and 3.3 assists per game in Las Vegas, and a part of his success comes from the fact that he feels the game might be slowing down entering his second professional campaign, via Dime Dropper Pod:
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, it helped that I was in the G League running point guard most of the time. Just getting those reps in, and in Summer League, is helping. I’m just getting more comfortable game by game.”
The Lakers guard could potentially earn a spot in the team’s the rotation in the 2025-26 season, and his development between the G League and Summer League shows why that might be the case.
His offense has taken real leaps — although he still has plenty of work to do with turnovers and consistent 3-point shooting — and even his defense has improved, when it was already his stronger side of the floor. And to see those types of strides so quickly shows that the Lakers made the right move selecting him at No. 55 overall in 2024.
And the way he has kept his head down and made those improvements in the face of constant criticism and national attention shows that he’s the kind of high-character player teams always love to have.
Bronny James discusses growth into leadership role
While Bronny James continues to get back into basketball shape this summer, he’s already making an impact off the floor as one of the Summer League squad’s de facto leaders. Following his California Classic debut, James talked about his natural leadership status and how his teammates have responded to him.
“To be honest, just trying to go out there and be myself,” Bronny said. “I’ve always been told that I have a leader kind of personality, so just trying to go out there and be the right example for my team and everything else will follow. And the guys…we have an amazing group of guys that are very coachable and very good people so there’s no problem whatsoever when it comes to that.”
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