Bronny James Finally Has What He Never Had With the Lakers: A Team Without His Father

For the first time in his NBA career, Bronny James walked into Los Angeles Lakers training camp without his father.

That sounds like a small thing.

For Bronny, it may be the biggest thing that has happened since he entered the league.

LeBron James is in Philadelphia now, wearing No. 23 for the 76ers and chasing another championship in his 24th NBA season. Bronny is still in Los Angeles, still wearing No. 9, still trying to establish himself as an NBA guard.

The father-son experiment is over.

Now the basketball evaluation can finally begin.

That may sound unfair to a player entering only his third season. But almost nothing about Bronny James' basketball life has been evaluated under normal circumstances.

He was not simply the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

He was LeBron James' son.

He did not simply make his NBA debut.

He became part of the first father-son duo to play together in NBA history.

Every assignment to the G League became a discussion about his development. Every NBA appearance became an event. Every good game became evidence that the doubters had been wrong. Every bad one became evidence that he never belonged.

For two years, Bronny could barely play basketball without the conversation becoming about somebody else.

That somebody else is gone now.

And Bronny James finally has the opportunity — and the responsibility — to make the Lakers keep him around for reasons that have nothing to do with his last name.

The Historical Part Is Finished

Bronny and LeBron already did the thing everyone knew they wanted to do.

On October 22, 2024, they checked into an NBA game together.

History made.

Whatever anyone thought about the circumstances that brought Bronny to Los Angeles, nobody could take that moment away from them.

But history does not earn rotation minutes three seasons later.

Bronny enters the 2026-27 season in a remarkably different Lakers organization from the one that drafted him.

LeBron is gone.

Luka Dončić is now unquestionably at the center of the franchise. Austin Reaves has become one of its primary leaders. Los Angeles rebuilt much of the roster around a younger timeline, adding players including Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Matisse Thybulle.

Nine players are new.

Strangely enough, that makes Bronny one of the Lakers who has actually been around.

He joked during training camp that Reaves has started calling him a veteran.

Bronny is 21.

But this is his third Lakers training camp.

And that changes the expectations.

He is no longer the rookie standing quietly in the corner while LeBron controls the room.

He is supposed to know where people need to be.

The Numbers Still Don't Make the Case

There is no reason to pretend Bronny has already established himself.

He hasn't.

He played 42 regular-season games for the Lakers last season and averaged 2.9 points, 1.2 assists and 0.5 rebounds.

Those are not rotation-player numbers.

They are not supposed to be.

Bronny spent much of his first two seasons moving between the NBA and developmental basketball, getting minutes when circumstances allowed and trying to turn himself into something more useful than the undersized combo guard who entered the league with an enormous name and an unfinished game.

The encouraging signs have mostly appeared underneath the headline numbers.

There were moments late last season when he looked more comfortable.

Against Utah in April, Bronny played 19 minutes and scored 11 points, making three of his four three-point attempts while adding four assists and a steal.

He also appeared in eight playoff games.

The minutes were limited. The production was modest.

But the Lakers began using him in ways that suggested a possible NBA identity.

Pressure the ball.

Pick up guards full court.

Defend with energy.

Move the offense.

Don't need the offense built around you.

That is not the profile of LeBron James' successor.

It doesn't need to be.

The question was never whether Bronny could become his father.

The useful question is whether he can become an NBA player.

There Is a Player Type That Makes Sense

At 6-foot-2, Bronny does not have much margin for error.

He isn't big enough to survive as a passive defender.

He isn't a sufficiently dominant scorer to justify possessions simply because he can create his own shot.

And on a team with Dončić and Reaves, there isn't much reason to hand him the ball and ask him to manufacture offense anyway.

So the path has become increasingly obvious.

Defend.

Handle the ball when necessary.

Make open threes.

Play fast.

Avoid mistakes.

Become irritating.

Bronny said during training camp that the Lakers have emphasized his full-court pressure, and that he has been picking up opposing ballhandlers after made baskets.

The opponents he gets to practice against aren't bad, either.

Dončić and Reaves.

Bronny said they get annoyed with him.

Good.

That may be one of the most encouraging things anyone can say about his development.

An NBA role player doesn't need teammates to admire him in practice.

Sometimes he needs them to hate seeing him across the floor.

The Shot Matters More Than the Name Now

Defense can get Bronny noticed.

Shooting may determine whether he stays on the court.

He has spent the summer working on the fluidity and speed of his release, according to his comments during Lakers camp.

That is not a cosmetic adjustment.

For a 6-foot-2 guard trying to survive alongside high-usage creators, the difference between being a credible catch-and-shoot threat and a defender opponents can ignore is enormous.

If Bronny can defend opposing guards and punish teams for leaving him open, there is an NBA archetype waiting for him.

It isn't glamorous.

It doesn't require 20 points per game.

It may not even require 10.

There are long NBA careers built by guards who make themselves useful without demanding the ball.

Bronny's problem is that his surname trained everyone to expect something more dramatic.

But perhaps becoming boring would be progress.

A normal defensive possession.

A clean entry pass.

A made corner three.

A backup point guard getting the team into its offense.

No historical milestone.

No father-son graphic.

No camera cutting to LeBron after every basket.

Just basketball.

JJ Redick Isn't Promising Him Anything

That may be the other important difference this season.

The Lakers have openings.

But they also have competition.

JJ Redick described his training camp plainly:

"This is a meritocracy."

Minutes have to be earned.

That matters because the Lakers are deeper at the positions Bronny needs to play.

Dončić and Reaves will dominate the backcourt hierarchy. Quentin Grimes brings size and two-way value. Collin Sexton can score. Matisse Thybulle has built an NBA career around perimeter defense. Other young players are fighting for the same scraps of playing time.

Bronny does not need to beat Dončić.

He doesn't need to become a starter.

He needs to become useful enough that Redick has a reason to call his number when the rotation gets stretched, somebody gets hurt or Los Angeles needs a defensive change of pace.

Bronny understands that.

He said this week that if someone goes down, he wants to be capable of stepping in as the primary ballhandler, organizing teammates and getting them into the right positions.

That sounds mundane.

It is also exactly the kind of responsibility that separates an NBA guard from a developmental project.

His Father Leaving Might Be the Best Thing for Him

There is an obvious emotional downside to LeBron leaving Los Angeles.

They made history together.

They traveled together.

Bronny had access to perhaps the greatest basketball mentor imaginable without leaving his own locker room.

But there was also no escaping him.

Every Bronny story contained LeBron.

Every debate about Bronny's legitimacy eventually became a debate about LeBron's influence.

Would the Lakers have drafted him otherwise?

Would another 55th pick receive this much attention?

Would his development have been handled differently if his father were not one of the most powerful players in league history?

Those questions were inevitable.

Some were reasonable.

They also became impossible to answer.

Now LeBron has inadvertently given his son something enormously valuable.

Distance.

LeBron chose Philadelphia because he believes the 76ers give him another opportunity to chase a championship.

Bronny stayed behind.

For the first time, their NBA careers have separated.

That means when Bronny gets minutes now, LeBron won't be waiting beside the scorer's table.

When Bronny struggles, his father won't be sitting on the Lakers bench.

When Bronny succeeds, the television camera won't have an obvious reaction shot waiting five seats away.

The Lakers belong to Dončić now.

Bronny's job is much smaller.

And maybe much healthier.

He needs to prove he belongs on the team.

Year 3 Is Where the Novelty Ends

There is another reason this season matters.

Bronny is no longer new.

The curiosity that surrounded his rookie season cannot sustain a career.

Second-round picks disappear from NBA rosters all the time. Young guards spend years bouncing between the NBA and G League. Players with recognizable names eventually face the same question as everyone else:

Can you help us win?

Bronny has already survived longer in Los Angeles than some expected.

He has also improved enough that dismissing him as nothing more than a nepotism story has become increasingly lazy.

Neither conclusion proves he has made it.

That is what makes Year 3 interesting.

The extremes are becoming less useful.

You don't have to believe Bronny James is secretly a future star.

You also don't have to pretend that a 21-year-old guard drafted 55th overall should already be a finished product.

He can simply be what most players selected in that part of the draft are:

unfinished.

Now We Get to Find Out

For most of Bronny James' basketball life, his name answered the question before anyone could ask it.

Who is he?

LeBron James' son.

Why is everyone watching?

LeBron James.

Why did the Lakers draft him?

LeBron James.

Why does this game matter?

LeBron James.

That explanation isn't available anymore.

His father is in Philadelphia.

Bronny is in Los Angeles.

One is chasing what could be the final championship of one of the greatest careers basketball has ever seen.

The other is trying to become a backup guard.

For Bronny, that may finally be enough.

Because the most important season of his NBA career isn't the one in which he played beside his father.

It might be the first one he has to play without him.

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