Bronny James is starting to find his footing in the NBA after delivering a stellar performance on Thursday night.
There has been no shortage of focus on the 20-year-old this season after the Los Angeles Lakers drafted him 55th overall in the 2024 NBA Draft.
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After making his debut for the team in the season opener and playing alongside dad LeBron James, Bronny has largely been relegated to the bench for much of the season. He’s also played for the South Bay Lakers in the G League in order to work on his skills.
His play for South Bay has steadily improved over the course of the season, and on Thursday night in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Bronny showed that he is starting to put things together on the NBA stage as well.
Bronny impresses in Lakers loss
While the Lakers fell short in a 118-89 defeat to the Bucks, it was a night to remember for Bronny.
He became the youngest Lakers rookie since Magic Johnson to finish with 17 points and five assists while shooting 70 percent from the floor, as per StatMamba. Bronny did all this while logging a career high 30 minutes.
The youngster was given ample playing time due to the fact that the Lakers were down several starters. Bronny played nearly all 12 minutes in the fourth quarter, even setting up fellow rookie Dalton Knecht for several three-pointers.
While you shouldn’t expect Bronny to play close to 30 minutes in a crucial game for the Lakers, the youngster showed he is starting to develop his game, and he talked about to the media.
“Just putting my head down and working,” he said, via LA Times. “I feel like that’s the only thing that I can control right now is going in every day and staying ready to play, staying ready to learn, getting the work in after hours, early mornings, stuff like that.
“Just all the controllables that I can do myself. There’s not really much I can do [about] people, random people, talking about me every day… So I just go in the gym and work, put my head down and try to get better.”
Bronny’s play even earned him praise from head coach JJ Redick.
“Since Day 1, I’ve just been impressed with the person that he is,” Redick said via LA Times. “And the way LeBron and Savannah have raised him was obvious to me from the moment I started spending time with him on the court this summer.
“He was certainly going to be an NBA player and I still believe that he’ll be an NBA player.”
