Shams Suggests The Lakers Are Holding Bronny James Out From Road Games In The G-League Because He Has "A Different Level Of Fanfare"
Adam Pantozzi. Getty Images.As I blogged last week, the entire saga around Bronny James and the Lakers G-League team is one of the craziest situations we've ever had. When the news dropped that the team was essentially banning him from playing G-League road games, none of it made sense. The whole point of going to the G-League is to develop! You only do that by playing as many minutes as possible so you can make your mistakes and learn. The entire idea seemed bizarre without knowing the exact details around the decision.
Enter Shams, we gave us an inside look at perhaps why the Lakers have gone this route. Given that Shams is a Klutch guy, I think it's safe to trust the source with this
“Bronny James isn’t just your normal, everyday G League player, for all the reasons we just mentioned. His name is Bronny James, and there are some things with him that just go with it, right ? Like, I mean, I don’t know if it’s a security thing, but there’s a different level of fanfare when he’s on the road for these G League games—a different level of everything when he’s with that G League team. So how do you manage that on the road? I don’t think the door is necessarily completely shut on him playing in those road games as the G League season goes on. But right now, that is the plan the Lakers have laid out, and they want him to continue to shuttle back and forth, spending as much time on the active roster as possible. It is very typical for a second-round pick to shuttle back and forth with the G League.”
Am I taking crazy pills or something? Shams is basically suggesting that Bronny is simply too famous/popular to play on the road? What? How on earth does that make any sense. So the fanfare isn't too high for the games in LA, but it's too high for games on the road? Again, am I taking crazy pills or something?
Now, Shams isn't lying when he says it's completely normal for 2nd round picks to shuttle back and forth between the G-League and the main club. That happens all the time with literally every team in the league. The thing is, the two aren't mutually exclusive! You can still shuttle back and forth between the two teams AND still play in road games to help your development. Is the suggestion here that the only way Bronny can develop is if he plays at home and then sits on the Lakers bench and does nothing while the rest of his G-League teammates are playing on the road? How exactly does that help?
If anything, it creates even more resentment and makes things 100000x harder for Bronny which is why this whole thing makes no sense to me. We get it, LeBron wanted his kid around during his final years. Fine. But why does it feel like the organization is hell-bent on ruining any chance Bronny has to even figure out how to be a bench warming NBA player? Just think about what we're being told. We're being told that Bronny is simply too popular to play G-League games that don't take place in LA. That is bananaland stuff.
Forget the fact that he's not even really playing all that well in the G-League. It'd be one thing if he was crushing and clearly showed he's a cut above that talent level. I suppose if that were the case this would all make sense. But in reality, the opposite is true. He needs all the reps he can get and then some. This is why in my blog last week I talked about how at this point I almost feel sorry for Bronny despite the fact that he's playing on a guaranteed deal worth millions and basically gets to be a WFH NBA player. While that seems awesome on the surface, you get the sense that he didn't really ask for any of the bullshit we're seeing happen since the Lakers took him 55th last June.
