Los Angeles Lakers’ Bronny James’ Aggressiveness Surprising NBA All-Star
Former USC Trojans guard Bronny James has become a polarizing figure since being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft.
After playing one season at USC, many believed that Bronny was not an NBA caliber player and was only selected because his father, NBA great LeBron James, was on the Lakers. The other side of the argument believes that the pick was in the second round of the draft, so why not take one of the greatest player of all-time’s son for the potential upside.
Bronny has appeared in 17 Lakers games this season and has scored a total of 23 points while shooting 7/28 from the field including 3/13 from three-point land. Bronny has started to play more in the G-League for the South Bay Lakers, where he has been able to further develop his game. He is averaging 22.8 points, 4.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds for South Bay.
Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas shared his thoughts on what he has seen from Bronny.
Gilbert Arenas spoke on his podcast, Gil’s Arena, about what he has seen recently out of Bronny. Bronny has noticeably been taking more shots and becoming more of a scorer.
“I didn’t think that he’d be this aggressive early in his career,” Arenas said. “This type of play…I thought that would be three years from now.”
Throughout Bronny’s basketball career since high school, he has never been considered a high volume shooter or scorer. Rather a pass first guard that hasn’t looked for his shot with the ball in his hands.
“His senior year (in high school) he averaged 12-13 points. AAU, he never was dropping 30-40 points. College, he averaged 3-4,” Arenas said. “How he looked at the beginning of the year, soon as he got the ball, pass it…Dribbling to make passes. This is a whole different mindset.”
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Bronny James played his lone year of college basketball for the USC Trojans in the 2023-2024 season. He averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game with the Trojans.
James suffered a cardiac arrest prior to the season causing him to miss a chunk of the year and delayed his USC debut, but thankfully was cleared and able to participate in his freshman season.
Gilbert Arenas will be much closer to the USC Trojans basketball program moving forward. His son, Alijah Arenas, committed to USC in late January of 2025. Alijah is a 6-6, 195 pound shooting guard that is ranked as the No. 7 overall player in the class of 2025 per 247Sports.
He is the top recruit landed by Trojans coach Eric Musselman since taking over this past offseason.
Cory Pappas is sports writer for USC Trojans On SI and Oregon Ducks On SI. Since starting in March of 2024, he has been writing breaking news stories, game previews, game recaps, and more across College Sports, the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Olympics for Total Apex Sports. In addition to writing, Cory is also a sports data scout for Sportradar. He covers live sporting events ranging from college athletics to semi-pro and professional. Before joining the industry, Cory graduated from the University of Oregon in 2022. He ran track for Oregon’s club Track and Field team. Before Oregon, he played varsity basketball and track and field in high school in Walnut Creek, CA. Cory is using his lifelong passion for sports and writing together.
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Gilbert Arenas says Bronny James became more aggressive because something happened ‘that we missed’
Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James has starred in the G League lately after getting off to a rocky start to his time with the South Bay Lakers.
In his G League debut with South Bay against the Salt Lake City Stars back in November, he attempted just nine shots from the field and finished with six points. About a week later, in his second G League game, he accumulated four points while shooting 2-of-10 from the floor.
These days, he’s taking more shots and scoring more points. According to former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas, James is a more aggressive player now because something transpired “that we missed.”
“How he looked at the beginning of the year — soon as he got the ball, pass it, right?” Arenas began. “Not looking — dribbling to make passes. This is a whole different mindset, and I wanna know what happened in a game or a practice. Something happened. … What was his moment? There was a moment that we missed.
“I don’t know if it was a practice, a game. I don’t know if him and [Quincy] Olivari have been going at it, and he got the best of him. There’s something that made him become this. We all have had it, where there was a moment that you did something, and you was like, ‘Oh s—, these motherf—— ain’t like that.’”
James has clearly been playing with a different level of bravado and fierceness at the G League level compared to his first games with South Bay. He has scored over 20 points in four of his last five games played with Los Angeles’ G League affiliate.
He most recently played for South Bay when the team took on the Valley Suns on Feb. 22. In a contest South Bay went on to win, James lit up the scoreboard with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
James has found his shooting touch from 3-point range at the G League level after he shot 0-of-10 from that range across his opening three games with South Bay. He has buried multiple triples in six consecutive G League games, and he totaled as many as five 3s in one game in that span.
The 20-year-old has appeared in a total of 13 G League games this season and is now averaging 17.8 points per contest.
For as productive as James has been on the offensive side of the ball for South Bay in recent months, he hasn’t gotten many opportunities to play for Los Angeles as of late. His last NBA action came more than a fortnight ago when the Lakers lost to the Utah Jazz back on Feb. 12. It’s worth noting that the All-Star break came right after that.
With any luck for James, head coach J.J. Redick will call his number in the near future, and he will get a real opportunity to show off his improvements.
