STUMP STORY OF THE DAY
Is Bronny to the Lakers A Good or Bad Thing for the NBA?
After Day 2 of the NBA Draft, Lebron James Jr. sets to join his father in the purple and gold this upcoming season.
With the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select…
Lebron James Jr., Point Guard, University of Southern California.
We are by no means the only sports outlet talking about this situation. In fact, we’re probably one of the last to feature Bronny as our big story. In our case, we wanted to see if Bronny to the Lakers would be real, or just smoke and mirrors.
Well folks, it’s real. About as real as it gets. But is this good for the NBA? Let’s dive into it.
It was a pretty conclusive opinion from NBA scouts around the league that Bronny was not NBA-ready and could’ve used one, maybe two more years in college to develop before he entered his name in the draft. With his fathers playing time expiring as he peaks over 40 years old, Bronny went ahead and entered.
Not only did he enter, but he was drafted to his father’s team. While Bronny has elite athleticism and showed flashes of true NBA potential during his one year at USC, he was nowhere near ready to be competing on that stage night in and night out.
It’s pretty obvious WHY he got drafted.. it goes to show that no other team decided to take a chance on him with the 54 picks prior.
The word nepotism gets thrown around a lot these days when talking about this situation. I’m not gonna say it is or it isn’t. All I’m going to say is that if his names wasn’t James Jr., he isn’t getting drafted, and he isn’t probably even entering the draft. But maybe, just maybe, it’s more than just nepotism. Maybe teams see flashes of his father in Bronny, I sure do. I would take a flier on a guy with those genetics too. See if you can develop him, who knows? If he has half the NBA career his father did, that second-round flier paid off.
Whether it’s good or bad for the NBA is another thing. Sure, there’s talented basketball players that were not selected by the Lakers in favor of Bronny, but this happens every year. There’s always someone who gets taken late in the second round who had a not great college career but is an athletic freak who has long term potential. There are only 60 picks in the NBA draft. You have to take the guys you really want. Even if that means it rattles some cages.
I personally do not think this is good or bad, I think it’s pretty par for the course in the NBA. There’s nepotism ALL over the league, think Luke Walton, Scottie Pippen Jr., and it gets even worse when you dive deep into NBA front offices.
I think this is the classic case of people freaking out over anything relating to LeBron, on both sides of the argument.
On paper, Bronny is NOT a draft pick. Statistics alone, no. But think how many people on this EARTH pose an inkling of athletic ability that LeBron James does. If teams can somehow get their hands on that level of talent, or anything close to it, they’re going to try. It would be stupid for them not to.
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