Bronny James ‘still has a lot of room for improvement’ at 19

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James discussed the continued development of his son and teammate, Bronny James, as Bronny gets his first taste of NBA action in the summer league.

Speaking to reporters in London, where the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team is in attendance for two exhibition games, LeBron had the following to say about Bronny’s position and what the future potentially holds for him:

“The most important thing for him is to keep getting better every day,” LeBron said. “The games, the practices, the video sessions, during his individual workouts. He’s 19 years old, so he has a lot of room to improve. He still has a lot to learn, but the best thing is for him to keep his head down and stay focused, the work will pay off.”

The Lakers selected Bronny with the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft after he played just one season at USC. If Bronny plays for the Lakers in the 2024-25 season, LeBron and Bronny will become the first father-son duo to play for the same team at the same time in NBA history.

After a difficult start to summer league, Bronny has been much better in the last two games and seems to be settling in.

Over his first four summer league outings, Bronny averaged just 4.3 points per game while shooting 22.6 percent from the field and missing all 15 of his three-point attempts.

He finally broke out with a big performance Wednesday, scoring 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor and 2-of-5 from deep as the Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks 87-86.

Bronny was even better Thursday, finishing with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go along with five rebounds, three assists and two blocks in LA’s 93-89 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After shining at Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles, Bronny entered the college ranks with a lot of hype surrounding him, but he faced adversity before the season when he suffered a cardiac arrest during practice last summer.

Bronny recovered and was eventually cleared to play, but he missed the first eight games of the season and never really found his groove, averaging just 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in 25 games.

LeBron’s desire to be teammates with his son has long been known, but it still came as a surprise when Bronny entered the draft and remained in the draft pool, as he reportedly would have gained a lot with an extra year of college.

Instead, Bronny will learn on the job with limited experience against top-level competition.

Bronny will probably always be compared to his father, but it’s not really a fair comparison since arguably no player in NBA history has done a better job of living up to the hype and being a top-tier player right out of the gate.

Bronny is a completely different player than his father and will have to fight to make his mark, but as he has shown through his improvement over the course of summer league so far, he has the tools to potentially be a useful NBA player.