The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten off to a solid start to the 2024-25 season, going 10-6 in their first 16 games with JJ Redick at the helm. Even with the actual play on the court going pretty well, the Lakers still manage to create a bit of controversy with the way they are handling the rookie season of second round pick Bronny James.
Bronny made his debut in the opener alongside LeBron, becoming the first father-son duo in league history to play together, and since then has made 6 NBA appearances — including in the Lakers visit to Cleveland, where Bronny was born. He’s also spent some time in the G League with the South Bay Lakers, playing two games so far with the Lakers affiliate. The reason Bronny has only made two appearances in the G League is the decision was made not have Bronny traveling and playing road games with South Bay. That, of course, limits the opportunities for James to get in game action, which is the point of having him in the G League, but travel for G League teams isn’t by charter and the decision was made just to keep him in L.A.
That move has led to plenty of conversation, with much of it focusing on whether the Lakers are stunting Bronny’s development with their plan. Charles Barkley certainly thinks so, explaining on a recent radio hit on “The Bettor Angle” why he thinks it’s not fair to Bronny or the South Bay Lakers (10:00 mark of the below video).
“They’ve handled it awful,” Barkley said. “Awful. … I thought it was great, a little ceremonial first game, but the kid’s not ready to play in the NBA. He should be in the G League so he can play basketball. He’s not going to get better sitting on the bench. But also this thing where he’s only gonna play home games, it’s wild? You mean stupid. It’s not fair to him. It’s not fair to the team. Can you imagine a coach of that — like, you come off a road trip and there’s a player you ain’t seen in a week or two, and then you feel like you gotta play him. I don’t think they’re doing Bronny any favors and they just handled this thing really bad. It’s a bad look for the Lakers. I actually think it’s a bad look — I really like everything LeBron’s done, but this is a bad look for him in my opinion.”
There’s no doubt that Bronny needs game reps and keeping him off of the road certainly limits his chances to get those. As for the bit about a guy being on and off the roster throughout the season, if there’s anywhere guys are going to be accustomed to dealing with that, it’s the G League where you regularly have players going up and down to and from NBA rosters — particularly with two-way deals being so prominent now. The reasoning from the Lakers (and James family) perspective is likely that flying commercial and going to G League arenas brings some considerable security questions that are not guaranteed to be met for someone with Bronny’s popularity. That said, it’s hard to argue with the criticism that James isn’t getting the maximum opportunity to develop from a basketball perspective.