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Los Angeles Lakers draft pick Brony James played his first road game in the G League and managed to score 30 points, and that’s a really big deal.
James, who was the 55th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, had just 4 points in 7 games as he drafted the Lakers. But with the South Bay Lakers in the G League, he’ll have more opportunities to develop and play real minutes with the ball in his hands.
He made the most of the opportunity, as 30 points against the pros is no small feat. But it’s also completely out of character for his playstyle and archetype.
With the help of Cerebro Sportswe’ve looked at every game Bronny has played tracked in their database since he just turned 15.
This spanned 115 games at Sierra Canyon High School, AAU tournaments with his Strive for Greatness team, various other competitions including California Basketball Club in Franceand college.
During that rather large sample size, mostly against high schoolers, Broni averaged 8.1 points per game. While his defense has always been impressive scouts, no one would call LeBron’s son a certified bucket.
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In fact, in those first 114 games before last night, he had topped 20 points on just 5 occasions. That happened twice at Peach Jam while playing AAU basketball for the 2022 Nike EYBL, twice with California Basketball Club and once at Sierra Canyon at the Les Schwab Invitational.
His career high at USC was just 15 points, though he was recovering from cardiac arrest this delayed the start of his only collegiate campaign.
Even before the health score, however, a 30-point game was pretty unheard of for Brony. He had done it just once before, losing by 31 points to CBC in the 2022 GEICO Top Flight Invite. For further proof of how rare this type of scoring is, however, he only had 4 points in the next game.
Basketball is a game that requires confidence, and for Broney, it’s important for the ball to go through that net. It’s been a low-pressure environment in the G League, but that’s exactly the kind of atmosphere he can thrive in, so he feels ready for the toughest competition at the next level.
While he didn’t do it against an NBA team, he was able to handle some legitimately real competition.
The Valley Suns have TyTy Washington Jr., who was a first-round pick in the 2022 NBA draft. and became an SEC freshman at Kentucky. They have Jalen Bridges, one of the top undrafted free agents in the 2024 NBA draft which was a featured in the NBA 2K25 Summer League.
He was also a standout in a game that featured Mamadi Diakite (a former NCAA and G League champion who won G League defensive honors) as well as Jaden Shackleford (who won a G League title last year) as well as Cassius Stanley (former top recruit also from Sierra Canyon).
Broney had 14 possessions for South Bay in that game as a pick-and-roll handler and 6 more one-on-ones against his isolation defender, via Synergy. In comparison, he only had 19 possessions as a PnR ball handler and 9 in iso during his 25 games at USC.
For his growth potential, these reps are invaluable and could go a long way toward increasing the likelihood of his NBA longevity.
There’s still a long way to go until Bronny is ready to make a truly positive impact in the league, if at all, but moments like last night make it feel that much more attainable.
