The Los Angeles Lakers' regular season comes to a close on Sunday, with a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. Since the Lakers have already clinched the third seed in the Western Conference, the team opted to rest their starters. With the starters out against Portland, Bronny James received the first start of his NBA career.
Ahead of his first career start, Lakers coach JJ Redick graded James for his rookie season, giving him an "A+."
"I give him and A+. How he has personally handled a lot of attention, good and bad, he doesn’t even break character," Redick said, via Khobi Price of the SoCal News Group. "He’s the same guy every day and he doesn’t allow the good attention to get to him. He doesn’t allow the bad attention to get to him and he just continued to work.
"I thought [coach] Zach [Guthrie] and his staff did a phenomenal job with him when he was down with the South Bay Lakers. He’s improved and we saw this particularly, I went to some early games and seeing his confidence grow from October, November, to really that second part of the G League season, post Showcase, was phenomenal. And I think every time he’s been on the court for us in the second half of the season, you can see that level of confidence and level of comfort. He’s a guy you can tell things to and they don’t let it affect their work or their attitude. I told him, I’m very high on him longterm being a part of our rotation."
As the son of LeBron James, Bronny has faced an immense amount of scrutiny since the Lakers drafted him last June. James acknowledged in an interview last month that he does see the criticism directed toward him, but that has not stopped him from continuing to make progress over his rookie year.
Heading into Sunday's game, James appeared in 26 games for the Lakers as a rookie, averaging 2.2 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 0.6 assists over an average of 5.5 minutes per game. James also saw extensive time in the G League, where both his production and confidence rapidly grew. During the Tip-Off tournament, James averaged 13.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game. Over the G League regular season, his averages rose to 21.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists per game and he shot 38% on threes, nearly 17% more accurately from the early season event.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as JJ Redick Gives Bronny James Surprising Grade for His Rookie Season With the Lakers.
