Bronny James saw his share of highs and lows during his rookie season with the Lakers organization.
Before the team’s regular-season finale Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers, coach JJ Redick was asked how he’d assess James’ first season.
From his answer, it’s clear that Redick saw only highs out of Lakers superstar LeBron James’ oldest son.
“I give him an A+,” Redick said. “How he has personally handled a lot of attention, good and bad, he doesn’t even break character. He’s the same guy every day. He doesn’t allow the good attention to get to him, and he doesn’t allow the bad attention to get to him. He just continues to work.”
Redick’s comment came before Bronny James’ first career start, as the Lakers rested their regular starters with the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference already wrapped up.
James struggled overall during his 38 minutes in the Lakers’ 109-81 loss on the road. He finished with four points on two-of-10 shooting (zero for two from three-point range), three rebounds, six assists, four steals, three turnovers and a plus/minus of -23.
The 6-foot-2 guard James did produce a couple of highlights. He had a two-handed dunk and found a wide-open Christian Koloko under the basket.
Afterward, James was asked to assess his rookie season so far.
“Thought I got better, I thought I grew as a player and a person,” he told Spectrum SportsNet. “There’s just more work to be done. Feel like my progression has been slow, but getting better every day.”
The Lakers drafted James with the 55th overall pick last summer and gave him a guaranteed four-year contract that could be worth nearly $8 million. On opening night, the two James men became the first father and son to share an NBA court together.
Bronny James would end up splitting his time between the NBA and its G League. With the South Bay Lakers, James showed marked improvement between his seven games in the tournament portion of the schedule early on (13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists a game) and his 11 regular-season games (21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists a game).
During his final G League game, James scored a career-high 39 points in a 122-118 win over the Santa Cruz Warriors on March 25 at UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo.
“I thought [coach] Zach [Guthrie] and his staff did a phenomenal job with him when he was down with the South Bay Lakers,” Redick said. “He’s improved and we saw this particularly — you know, I went to some early games and seeing his confidence grow from October, November, to really that second part of the G League season, post Showcase, was phenomenal.”
With the Lakers, James has played in 27 games, averaging 2.3 points, .7 rebounds and .8 assists in 6.7 minutes. His breakthrough game was March 20 at Crypto.com Arena, where he scored 17 points during a 118-89 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in which most of the Lakers top players did not play.
“I think every time he’s been on the court for us in the second half of the season, you can see that level of confidence and level of comfort,” Redick said. “He’s a guy you can tell things to and they don’t let it affect their work or their attitude. I told him I’m very high on him long-term being a part of our rotation.”
Time will tell if James fits into the Lakers’ postseason plans. They open the first round of the playoffs Saturday at home against the No. 6-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves.
