Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade believes that the Los Angeles Lakers should bring rookie Bronny James up to the NBA since they are not a “championship team” this season.
Right now, the Lakers hold the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference with a 16-12 record. They’ve won three games in a row heading into Monday night’s matchup with the Detroit Pistons.
On Monday, former NBA guard Lou Williams responded to Wade’s take, explaining that it’s better for James to gain valuable learning experiences in the G League.
“I disagree,” Williams said. “Again, the Lakers aren’t – this is the Showtime Lakers. They’re not known for developing talent. It’s not like he’s gonna come up and get an opportunity to play a bunch of minutes where he can get that in-game experience that he’s gonna get with the G League team.
“He’s gettin’ valuable minutes. He’s learnin’ valuable things about runnin’ the point guard, about bein’ a 2-guard, bein’ undersized, findin’ out ways that he can impact games, findin’ out ways that he can stick, and by the time that he does come up to the Los Angeles Lakers, he can be a worthy, worthy guy on that basketball team that’s gonna earn his minutes.”
With the Lakers in the playoff mix right now, it wouldn’t make sense bring up James and give him big minutes over players like D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Max Christie, Dalton Knecht and others.
Los Angeles is reportedly bringing James up for the Pistons game on Monday, but he will likely be back with the G League team before too long.
As long as James’ father LeBron and fellow star Anthony Davis are on the roster, the Lakers are going to try to compete for a title since they made the Western Conference Finals in the 2022-23 season and won the NBA Finals with the duo in the 2019-20 season.
So far in the 2024-25 campaign, the younger James has appeared in seven games at the G League level. He has averaged 13.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 37.4 percent from the field and 21.2 percent from deep in 27.0 minutes per game.
At the NBA level, the younger James has also appeared in seven games, but he has only played 2.6 minutes per game.
While Wade may believe that it’s time for the Lakers to put the 20-year-old in the spotlight, Los Angeles has invested a lot into the roster to try to compete for a title. Since it only used a second-round pick on the younger James, it makes more sense to let him get playing time in the G League right now to improve his skills.