After completing two games in the G League Showcase for the South Bay Lakers, Bronny James showed promise and struggles he still has to work through.
The G League Winter Showcase began this past weekend in Orlando with the Bronny James and the South Bay Lakers in attendance.
Bronny has been playing more and more with the Lakers G League affiliate over the past several weeks. And this weekend, he had mixed performances in his two games.
Against the Greensboro Swarm, the Charlotte Hornets affiliate, Bronny had a strong showing. He scored 16 points, converted on both his free throw attempts and led the team with five assists.
However, against the Osceola Magic, he didn’t fare as well. Bronny had just six points and went 3-7 from the field in the team’s 120-104 win.
John Hollinger of The Athletic was at both South Bay games in Orlando and wrote about the negatives and positives regarding Bronny’s performance.
“Let’s start with the positives. James showed some flashes of pick-and-roll viability in his on-ball reps, especially when he could start the move with a hard dribble left around the screen. He was comfortable getting to a right-handed floater going that way and judicious about snaking it back to his right hand to either get to the rim or force a rotation and hit the big man.”
When discussing Bronny's struggles, Hollinger pointed out the 3-and-D qualities the rookie guard still lacks.
“In the half court, he could work with a screen, but isolations were a different story. James has no wiggle to his game and couldn’t shake defenders in one-on-one matchups after switches and hasn’t established himself as a legitimate 3-point threat either on or off the ball. He made two of his eight attempts from 3 in Orlando and is 7-of-33 from distance in his G League season. Between that and his limited ability to get to the cup on his own steam, his true shooting percentage of 45.4 heading into Saturday was alarmingly poor.”
Unsurprisingly, Bronny has some Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in his game. He’s a developmental player and these performances are part of the ebbs and flows of a second-round draft pick trying to establish themselves in the NBA.
NBA reporter Jeremy Woo also discussed Bronny’s play in an ESPN article and shared the intel he gathered from scouts around the league. The general consensus is that the G League is exactly where Bronny needs to be to develop his game.
“The unanimous view I heard from watching scouts at the Showcase is that James needs as much time as he can get in the G League to improve all aspects of his point guard play, from his floor game to (especially) his ability to make shots.”
NBA Insider Marc Stein had similar reporting regarding Bronny’s game and wrote about it in his latest newsletter.
“The unanimous view I heard from watching scouts at the Showcase is that James needs as much time as he can get in the G League to improve all aspects of his point guard play, from his floor game to (especially) his ability to make shots.”
There have already been South Bay games where Bronny has impressed, including his 30-point performance on the road versus the Valley Suns.
Progress isn’t linear for any young player, so don’t expect Bronny to be an exception.
The good news is now that he’s joining South Bay for road games, he’s getting plenty of playing time and that’s exactly what he needs to reach his full potential.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.
