LeBron James says Bronny James ready for playoff minutes on short-handed Lakers: 'Earned and deserved'
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The Los Angeles Lakers are about to enter a playoff series without Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. So we can probably expect a lot of LeBron James, and perhaps some LeBron James Jr. (a.k.a. Bronny) as well.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick signaled Wednesday, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, that the younger James could see real minutes for the Lakers against the Houston Rockets in the first round:
“We’re going have to have all hands on deck for the series, that’s just when you’re short-handed. He’s got to be ready. Nick [Smith Jr.] will have to be ready. I think Bronny’s improved a lot. I think we trust him. The shooting piece, I’m a believer in, because of how well he shot it in the last two years in the G League.
“I know there was a stretch recently where he didn’t shoot it well and of course, he had a nice shooting game against Utah. He’s improved a ton defensively in terms of his body positioning, both on and off ball. We want him to continue to evolve as a disruptive defender as well.”
James, the Lakers’ second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, has appeared in 42 games (1 start) for the Lakers in his sophomore season, with most of his minutes coming in garbage time. His 40.9% shooting and 38.6% shooting from 3-point range have been a significant increase from his numbers last year (31.3% and 28.1%).
In the Lakers’ five games since Dončić and Reaves went down, he has averaged 6.6 points and 2.0 assists in 17 minutes per game. In 14 G League games, he has averaged 15.6 points, 3.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds with strong shooting numbers.
All of that adds up to a player deserving of postseason minutes, according to his father:
“Me being on the floor with him — postseason, regular season, training camp, practices — is the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my career, above everything that I’ve accomplished. The fact that he’s put himself in the position to get his number called for a postseason game is pretty remarkable and pretty cool, given the circumstances that he’s been through the last couple years. He earned and he deserved, he’ll be ready.”
Bronny also spoke of his emotions going into the series:
“It’s insane. I mean, I’ve literally watched his [father’s] whole career. And now I’m a part of it. So it’s a great experience. I’m appreciative of it. but I’m part of the job too, so I have to do my job as well. I got to lock in.”
The pair have already achieved plenty of firsts together, and they could now become the first father-son duo to log playoff minutes together.
The absence of Dončić and Reaves takes away two of the Lakers’ top three players in scoring, assists, minutes, usage rate and a ton of other statistics, leaving plenty of workload to move around. Luke Kennard, Jake LaRavia and Rui Hachimura have all seen increased minutes since those two went down, in addition to James.
It’s unclear how long the Lakers will have to make do, provided they even have games to play after this round. Should they make it past the Rockets, who are -550 favorites to advance, they can expected to face the No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.
OKC went 4-0 against the Lakers this season, with an average scoring margin of 29.3 points.
