Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul was blunt with Bronny James about his assessment of where he could realistically be drafted this summer, Baxter Holmes of ESPN writes in a feature. Even though he knew he could go undrafted, James simply wanted to hear his name called.
“Nobody pressured Bronny to go pro,” Paul said. “Bronny had a choice to stay at USC, he had a choice to transfer somewhere else or he had a choice to go pro.”
That, alone, was Bronny’s choice to make, Holmes writes. He wound up being selected at No. 55 to the Lakers, the much speculated landing spot for him despite reports of outside interest. While his decision to go pro after only 25 collegiate games drew criticism, given his father’s status as one of the greats, Holmes writes that Bronny has been one of the first players in the gym and is eager to shake off any rust accrued from his lone collegiate season following cardiac arrest.
“Bronny is serious,” Paul said. “This isn’t a f—ing game for him. He wants to play in the NBA, and he wants to play well within his role.”
Paul, Bronny and the entire James family are aware of the narrative surrounding him, Holmes writes, but Paul and Bronny are eager to rewrite it. It won’t be easy to tune out the constant noise — both positive and negative — but the freshly 20-year-old Bronny is handling all the questions and pressure with grace. I recommend checking out Holmes’ feature in full here.
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- JJ Redick wants the Lakers to be one of the most high-volume three-point shooting teams in the league this season, Khobi Price of The Orange County Register writes. L.A. saw 40 three-point attempts in the Sunday preseason game against Phoenix, which was encouraging from Redick’s perspective. “[Forty threes] is a lot,” Redick said. “But if you’re generating good ones, that’s a great number. I would like us to average five or six more threes a game. But you have to be conscientious about how we’re generating those threes.” The Lakers didn’t make many outside additions this offseason, but we previously relayed that they’re interested in getting Anthony Davis to take more. Rookie Dalton Knecht and third-year wing Max Christie could also factor into that equation.
- Mohamed Bamba is dealing with a knee injury that’s left him out of action for the Clippers during the preseason, Law Murray of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). According to Murray, head coach Tyronn Lue said the hope is for Bamba to be ready for the start of the regular season but with Bamba out, Kai Jones is the backup center. That’s interesting to note, because Jones is currently only signed to an Exhibit 10 deal. With 15 players on standard contracts, Jones makes the most sense for a two-way deal. We outlined the Clippers’ current roster battle here. However, given that P.J. Tucker is remaining away from the team, there could theoretically be more roster juggling for Los Angeles than simply converting Jones to an open two-way slot.
- Offensive rebounding has been a major focal point for the Kings through training camp and the preseason, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes. Analytically inclined general manager Monte McNair encouraged head coach Mike Brown to make offensive rebounding a staple of the team’s philosophies, Anderson writes. “Talking to Monte was a little bit more convincing,” Brown said. “The next step was doing it in practice and training camp and seeing it on film and realizing, hey, we’re sending these guys to the glass, but because of the way we’re doing it, we’re still pretty good in transition defense. It’s been two years now, going into year three, so I’m convinced that you can attack the glass while still being good in transition defense. It just took time.“
- DeMar DeRozan was highly efficient in his Kings preseason debut, as he scored 15 points in 15 minutes, Anderson writes in a separate story. DeRozan didn’t miss a shot. Teammate De’Aaron Fox was highly complimentary of DeRozan after the game. “Bringing in that type of talent, especially guys who are extremely unselfish, you enjoy playing together,” Fox said.
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