Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Bronny James, the son of superstar LeBron James, has played in four games this season, including during Wednesday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. But now he will be moving to a new phase of his basketball career — a developmental phase.
Ever since the Lakers took him with the No. 55 pick in June’s draft — and even before that when everyone was expecting the Lakers to draft him — the expectation has been that the younger James would spend quite a bit of time in the G League.
He will start playing in the G League just two days from now, as he has now reportedly been officially reassigned.
Via ESPN:
“The Los Angeles Lakers have assigned rookie Bronny James to their G League affiliate, South Bay, and sources told ESPN that he is expected to debut for the team Saturday against Salt Lake City,” wrote Shams Charania.
“James will be on the Lakers’ roster for Friday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, then will rejoin South Bay, according to sources.”
But there will be one interesting part about his assignment to the G League.
“The organization’s current plan is for James to play in only G League home games as he shuttles between the Lakers and South Bay, sources said,” wrote Charania.
Given that the younger James was one of the last players chosen in this year’s NBA draft, his assignment to the G League isn’t exactly unusual. Most expected that if he would ever become a viable NBA rotational player, it would take a while and possibly even a couple of years. Plenty are still skeptical that he even has the ability to become such a player, no matter how much work he puts in.
The 20-year-old averaged 4.8 points on 36.6% overall shooting and 26.7% shooting from 3-point range last season in his lone go-around at the University of Southern California. Part of his offseason training regimen prior to last season was cut short when he suffered a cardiac arrest episode.