Bronny James will continue sharing the court with his legendary father on the Los Angeles Lakers’ upcoming road trip before switching to a shuttle between the active roster and the Lakers’ South Bay G League affiliate, ESPN reported Friday.
Bronny James made history with his father, LeBron James, in Tuesday’s season-opening win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, when the pair became the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game.
After home games on Friday and Saturday, the Lakers hit the road for the following five games, starting Oct. 28 against the host Phoenix Suns and ending Nov. 6 in Memphis, with stops in Cleveland, Toronto and Detroit along the way.
Wednesday’s matchup against the Cavaliers is expected to be a highlight of the trip, serving as a homecoming of sorts for the pair. A native of Akron, Ohio, LeBron was drafted by Cleveland with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and spent the first seven years of his career there, before later adding another four seasons in Cleveland. Bronny was born in October of 2004, as his father was preparing for his second season in Cleveland.
Both LeBron and Lakers coach J.J. Redick anticipated that Bronny would spend time honing his skills in the G League.
“Just (looking forward to) seeing him continue to grow as a basketball player no matter if it’s here with us or if it’s down with the G League team and him continuing to get better and better and better,” LeBron said at media day in September. “His job is to put the work in and get better and better, just like the rest of us. And we want to hold him accountable, and he’s going to hold us accountable. And if we all do that, we all get better, because we’re all one team. We’re a reflection of South Bay; South Bay is a reflection of us.”
First-year coach Redick has expressed a desire to establish an elite player development program utilizing the G League.
“For us, prioritizing player development, we view Bronny as like, case study one, because his base level of feel, athleticism, point-of-attack defender, shooting, passing, there’s a lot to like about his game,” Redick said in July, per ESPN. “And as we sort of build out our player development program holistically, he’s going to have a great opportunity to become an excellent NBA player.”
Bronny James didn’t score in three minutes of play in the season-opening win over the Timberwolves, after playing in six preseason games, averaging 16.2 minutes and 4.2 points per game.