Bronny James is, in some ways, the quintessential addition of the post-2020 championship Los Angeles Lakers. Consider all the massive names they’ve added to the roster since then. The ill-fated Andre Drummond signing of 2021. The Russell Westbrook catastrophe that adopted. Minimal signings like Carmelo Anthony and DeAndre Jordan. Reunions with getting older champions Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard. The Lakers of the previous few years have been significantly better at profitable press conferences than video games.
Bronny is the logical extension of that pattern. He’s nearly inarguably essentially the most well-known rookie coming into the NBA for the 2024-25 season. The Lakers are justifiably going to make an enormous spectacle of the NBA’s first ever father-son duo, assuming the elder LeBron James stays on the group. Take this for what it is price, nevertheless it appears odd to me that there was no reporting about his participant choice determination as of roughly 9 p.m. ET on Thursday night time. Regardless, the Lakers love being connected to fame and historical past.
However fame does not equal success. Bronny fell to No. 55 for causes that prolonged past Wealthy Paul’s Australia threats. He was a late second-round choose as a result of he was a late second-round prospect, and whereas there are apparent exceptions, late second-round prospects hardly ever impression short-term championship pursuits.
Does this imply the Lakers should not have drafted Bronny? After all not. The No. 55 choose was a low-upside asset anyway, so fame apart, utilizing it to doubtlessly maintain your greatest participant glad and tied to the franchise is fairly affordable. With time and seasoning, Bronny may doubtlessly develop into an independently beneficial NBA participant. His highschool profession alone was going to get him an opportunity within the NBA, both with the Lakers or another person. His title had worth to the Lakers. His recreation had worth inside fringe NBA circuits. So by all means, take him at No. 55. The choose itself is fairly innocent.
It is what the choose represents that begins to make issues really feel a bit iffier. The Lakers gained solely 47 video games final season. They misplaced within the first spherical of the playoffs, and with LeBron set to show 40 this season, they’re in all probability trending down as a group. They’ll want a roster shakeup to alter that, and a second-round choose is not going to chop it. Given this group’s current historical past, it is truthful to fret if they’ll be glad with making the splashy addition whether or not or not it seems to be the impactful one.
The Lakers have already gained the press convention, however Bronny does little to really assist them win video games, and, nicely, in the intervening time at the very least, they do not appear to be they’re performing all that aggressively on that entrance. Throughout JJ Redick’s introductory press convention on Monday, basic supervisor Rob Pelinka basically deferred to the difficulties of the brand new CBA when requested about doable offseason trades.
“I do assume on this system, as I opened, a few of the trades are tougher, particularly if in case you have a second-apron group and a first-apron group, and there is a probability we’ll be within the first apron, the trades are much less prevalent than they was,” Pelinka stated. “So, will we search for trades that assist us turn into a greater group? Completely. Are these trades, have they got the identical chance that they’d below the previous system? No, it’s a totally different system.”
The Lakers entered the offseason with three tradable first-round picks: No. 17 total on Wednesday together with picks in 2029 and 2031. They used No. 17 to pick out Dalton Knecht out of Tennessee. Pelinka stated that the Lakers explored trades earlier than taking him, however once more cited the brand new guidelines as an impediment.
There’s nonetheless time for the Lakers to make a major improve this offseason. They may even be ready for readability on D’Angelo Russell’s future earlier than they attempt to make one. His $18.7 million participant choice for subsequent season would characterize important matching wage for the Lakers in any commerce, whereas their different mid-sized contracts largely belong to gamers they’d choose to maintain, like Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt. It is not affordable to count on the Lakers to make a commerce earlier than they know what’s tradable. In a day or two, the Lakers may need a revamped roster that appears extra aggressive in a loaded Western Convention.
However the messaging to date this offseason has been that this group is considering the long-term relatively than the quick time period. They’ve repeatedly emphasised participant growth by way of press conferences and leaks, and even when they hadn’t, simply take a look at their teaching search. They employed a head coach in Redick with no expertise on the skilled or collegiate stage solely after a university coach stated no to them. Redick and Dan Hurley could nicely turn into elite NBA head coaches some day. It in all probability is not going to occur in a single day. LeBron does not have time to attend for the Lakers to organically develop a contending roster for him. It is now or by no means for the soon-to-be quadragenarian.
The Lakers have already sacrificed a mountain of draft picks to the altar of James’ win-now ambitions. Hesitating to surrender extra of them is cheap. On paper, it nearly all the time is sensible for groups to emphasise participant growth and maintain their picks within the title of long-term accountability. But when that’s certainly the plan, it is price questioning what sensible, on-court objective even holding James (and, to maybe a fair larger extent, Anthony Davis) nonetheless serves?
For those who’re not going to make the short-term investments it would take to offer James a real probability on the championship, why not thank him for his service and permit him to stroll to a brand new group? Why not money in Davis as a commerce chip now, when his worth is at its peak, when holding him dangers age or harm getting in the best way of a future rebuild? Why does a group that has gained 17 championships care about doubtlessly profitable 47 video games subsequent season?
The reply to that could be a sophisticated mishmash of the group’s enterprise pursuits and unconventional energy dynamics. It is also concern of the unknown and good quaint NBA inertia. Selecting a path is tough. Boston’s quest for banner No. 18 began with the Celtics accepting the fact that the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce period not held any championship fairness and shifting them to kickstart what comes subsequent. There is likely to be a bit extra juice to squeeze out of this period of Lakers basketball. James and Davis are nonetheless ok to justify pushing the chips in and attempting to climb again to the highest. These two are additionally sufficiently old for the entrance workplace to justify cashing out now and, just like the Celtics did a decade in the past, getting ready for an unsure future. Both facet is cheap.
However it definitely seems to be, at this stage, just like the Lakers are planning to place that call off for at the very least a short time longer and search a extra harmful center path, and drafting Bronny helps them do it. For the following few months, at the very least, a lot of the protection surrounding the Lakers can be in regards to the feel-good story of an all-time nice sharing the court docket together with his son as an alternative of the way more pertinent story of an all-time nice doubtlessly ending his profession on a group with out official championship aspirations. Glamour with out substance is so very Hollywood.
The Lakers have time to alter all of this. It does not even must be within the speedy future. They salvaged the 2022-23 season on the commerce deadline, and will doubtlessly take one other swing there subsequent February. They might nicely be capable of get hauls again for buying and selling James and Davis subsequent summer time if this season is a disappointment.
The purpose, above all else, needs to be avoiding the form of sluggish, regular decline that tends to come back when your two greatest gamers are a mixed 70 years previous. If the franchise is dedicated to matching and ultimately exceeding Boston’s 18th championship banner, it must both swallow the bitter rebuilding tablet the Celtics did in 2014 or search the Jrue Vacation- and Kristaps Porzingis-level additions that Boston invested in final offseason to push for the 2024 title in earnest. Nothing in between. Championships aren’t gained on the center path. Commit to the current or decide to the longer term.
Bronny means little to the previous past doubtlessly securing his father’s signature, and historical past means that no No. 55 choose is all that prone to matter to the latter. In basketball phrases, he is simply one other late second-round choose. A well-known one, absolutely, however not in any far more essential to the group’s on-court prospects than any others. There’s nothing unsuitable with utilizing a late second-round choose on a late second-round expertise. It simply is not an excuse to do what it takes to safe, both now or sooner or later, the form of expertise that really impacts profitable on the best stage. Because the Lakers have realized over the previous few years, fame is not a lot of an indicator of future success. Bronny could also be story, however the Lakers have a handful of way more essential selections forward of them.