After a slow start to the G League season, Bronny James had his first big game with South Bay, scoring 30 points in a road loss.
Bronny James might have started his professional career slowly, but Thursday went some way in proving his potential.
In his first road game with the South Bay Lakers, Bronny traveled to Arizona State University’s campus to take on the Valley Suns on Thursday. And in his best game of any sort since high school, he poured in 30 points on 13-23 shooting in a loss.
Until Thursday, the Lakers had not made Bronny available for road G League games. So far, that means he’s missed all of three road games, most of which he was either injured or on the road with the parent Lakers anyway.
Sure is a shame the Lakers ruined his development after not having him play road games for a couple weeks.
Bronny had it all going in this one. He connected on a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter, going 3-9 from range overall. Inside the arc, he missed just four shots all night.
The biggest takeaway, though, was the comfort and confidence he had offensively. Granted, he wasn’t playing against NBA defenses or even a good G League one, but he was attacking the rim under control and either finishing at the basket or knocking down pull-up jumpers.
This is the version of Bronny that was once a projected top-10 pick.
You don’t want to put too much stock into one game, but considering how few highlights he’s had this season that wasn’t connected to him just getting on the court, this is very encouraging. This is also the reason the Lakers are sending Bronny to the G League. It’s to get reps like this.
While there is still a lot of work to do and this is just one game, this has to feel good for Bronny. It’s been a really long journey for him since he left Sierra Canyon. Even if it’s just the G League, even if it’s just one game, I’d imagine this is validating in a lot of ways to have a night like this.
Now, as I’m sure he knows and everyone around him will be telling him, the challenge is to keep stacking good days like Thursday together.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
