During a baseball-less week when colleges are not in session, the ESPN family of networks is especially in need of live content. I honestly believe that is what has driven the expansion and explosion of the NBA Summer League. Now spread out over two venues on the UNLV campus, it occupies nearly twelve consecutive hours of an otherwise devoid schedule.
In the real world, it’s a crucial part of player development, a de facto combination of football’s OTAs, the first time recently drafted players get to experience being in their professional uniform, and the exhibition season, which tends to focus on those fighting for backup roster spots. The actual game results are meaningless, though there’s more than enough action being offered to the on-site attendees to throw a few shekels against.
While there are some examples of some true breakout players being unearthed in this environment, for the most part, this may be the zenith of some of their careers. In a normal year, that would be the allure. But this is no normal year. That 55th pick of the draft is sucking up quite a bit of the 100-degree-plus oxygen. Despite the fact that, at least for now, he’s the only one wearing a Lakers uniform with his surname.
Naturally, just about everybody who’s covering this casually is focused on how he’s doing, and UPI’s Alex Butler was no exception with the story he dropped last night:
Bronny James shook off the rusty start to his NBA journey, making 5 of 11 shots for 12 points in his best game of the summer league and helping the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks in Las Vegas.
“I was just trying to forget about all the shots I missed, forget about all the games we lost, just come out and play my game and try to give my best,” James said on the ESPN broadcast after the 87-86 win Wednesday from the Thomas & Mack Center.
James made just 7 of 31 (22.5%) shots, including an 0 for 15 clip from 3-point range, through his first four summer league appearances. The second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft averaged 4.2 points per game during that stretch.
James made both of his shot attempts in the first quarter. He missed his 16th-consecutive 3-pointer in the second, before making his first shot from downtown 2:47 before halftime.
James totaled five points in the second quarter. The 19-year-old guard didn’t score in the third quarter, but made another 3-pointer in the fourth to finish with a dozen points.
That’s an awful lot of detail for someone who was described by his coach–and his dad’s podcast partner–in this manner, as reported by ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin:
“He is a development player,” Lakers coach JJ Redick told SiriusXM NBA Radio on Friday. “That’s how we’re looking at Bronny. He’s certainly going to spend time with the Lakers. He will spend time as well in the G League. As we sort of build out our player development program, he’s going to be an important part of that.“
And as noted above, he’s made some progress through this statistically insignificant sample size, as McMenamin also noted:
One scout who works for an Eastern Conference team stated the obvious to ESPN after the Houston game, during which James shot 0-for-8 from 3. “He’s going to have to be a knockdown shooter,” the scout told ESPN before adding a compliment for the 55th pick out of USC. “He plays the right way though.” Another scout who works for a Western Conference team said that James’ confidence has appeared to be an issue in summer league but was empathetic to the situation the 19-year-old guard faces. “No one can withstand the scrutiny he is under,” the scout told ESPN.
Certainly, that was a lesson learned by the recent MVP of the NBA Finals who made the grievous error of offering his own hot take, as CBS BOSTON’s Matt Geagan reported:
Jaylen Brown had a front-row seat for Monday night’s Celtics-Lakers Summer League tilt in Las Vegas, and did not come away impressed with Bronny James. He was caught on camera sharing a brutally honest assessment of LeBron James’ son, which has gone viral given the nature of his scouting report.
Brown was courtside at the Thomas & Mack Center with Kysre Gondrezick and Angel Reese, and a brief exchange between the three was caught by the NBC Sports Boston cameras during the game broadcast.
“Honestly, I don’t think Bronny is a pro,” Brown appeared to say of the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
While that is an opinion held by many in regards to the younger James, Brown has been catching a lot of flack from Lakers fans since the video went viral. He responded early Tuesday morning with a post on X, essentially confirming what he said but also backpedaling just a bit.
But there are other players who are performing at far better levels that would easily pass Brown’s scrutiny, a list that almost necessitated this semi-apologetic recap from ESPN.com’s Jonathan Givony and Ohm Youngmisuk:
Many of the 2024 draft class hit the ground running on Friday’s Day 1, both in terms of younger prospects such as Zaccharie Risacher, Alex Sarr, Reed Sheppard, Stephon Castle, Matas Buzelis and Bub Carrington, as well as the older rookies such as Dalton Knecht, Tristan da Silva and Terrence Shannon Jr. Even players viewed as more long-term projects — such as Tidjane Salaun, Cody Williams and Kel’el Ware — don’t look quite as far away as previously expected.
“It definitely makes me mad that people would say that,” Pistons rookie Ron Holland II said of the perception this is an underwhelming draft class. “But we go out here and play the game of basketball and just show everybody, show the whole world why we really want [to be] the best competitive class.”
Feel free to add these names to this list compiled by NBA.com’s staff from yesterday alone:
Keon Ellis, Sacramento
Though it wasn’t enough to avert Sacramento’s loss to New York, Ellis turned in one of the best all-around showings of this year’s Summer League with 29 points, six assists, four rebounds, four blocks and two steals. He drilled 5 of 10 3-point attempts, including what would have been the game-winner with 6.7 seconds left had the Kings been able to prevent Tyler Kolek’s go-ahead three-point play on the ensuing possession.
Taylor Hendricks, Utah
Hendricks was virtually perfect, converting 9 of 10 shots on his way to 23 points in Utah’s victory over Toronto. And it wasn’t like he was just feasting on chippies, either. Playing the modern heat map to perfection, Hendricks went 4-for-5 on jump shots, including three 3-pointers, while taking (and making) the rest of his attempts inside the restricted zone. He added nine rebounds, one steal and one block to round things out.
GG Jackson II & Scotty Pippen Jr., Memphis
Jackson and Pippen took turns dominating Orlando with the former piling up 27 points and 13 rebounds and the latter amassing 25 points, nine assists and four boards. Pippen was especially impressive late, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter as the Grizzlies built a double-digit lead and held on late. Jackson, meanwhile, boosted his summer scoring average to 22.3 points per game to climb up the Las Vegas scoring chart.
David Roddy, Phoenix
In less than half a minute, what had been a solid performance for Roddy (21 points) in a likely loss to Oklahoma City became a great one in a miraculous comeback, thanks entirely to his heroics. First, Roddy hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds to tie the game at 97-97. Then, following, a go-ahead bucket by the Thunder, Roddy knocked down all three free throws with 0.3 left after he was fouled on another attempted 3 to give Phoenix the win.
Kel’el Ware, Miami
While Heat starter Bam Adebayo impressed in Team USA’s Olympic tune-up win over Serbia, Ware added another quality entry in his ongoing audition to earn a rotation role behind him. The Mavericks had absolutely no answer for Miami’s No. 15 pick, who piled up 24 points (9-for-12 FGs), 10 rebounds and three blocks while helping hold opposing starter Jamarion Sharp scoreless in 16 minutes.
We may or may not see these players get significant minutes in November–or even October, when actual exhibition games are staged. I’d like to think these kind of performances then will attract a tad more attention beyond the league’s official site.
But that will also provide the first possibility of seeing the two Lebron James in uniform on an NBA court at the same time. Somehow, I feel that will be the dominant story.
Which, if you are indeed a basketball fan, would be unfortunate. No teenage project, regardless of DNA, should warrant that kind of scrutiny. Especially when we apparently live in a world where honest opinions are not welcome.
Back in February, pere James x-eeted to the world these words of a doting but impatient parent when Bronny had been dropped from mock draft consideration, as reported by PEOPLE.com’s Charna Flam:
“Can yall please just let the kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball,” the Lakers star wrote in the now deleted X post, reports USA Today. “The work and results will ultimately do the talking no matter what he decides to do.”
I hope that sage advice holds for those who can’t seem to find anyone else they’re interested in watching start their pro careers this week. Fortunately, the odds of these Lakers making a championship tier aren’t very good, so this kind of obsessive coverage will shortly lapse for several weeks.
We could all use a break. Right, Jaylen?
Courage…