Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve got a great weekend ahead of you.
Earlier this week, Bronny James and LeBron James made history by being the first father-son duo to play in an NBA game together. We’ve been waiting all these years for this to happen. From the moment LeBron mentioned it as a possibility to when it all went down.
Soon, it seems, however, they’ll be separated again. Kind of.
After the Lakers’ next road trip, Bronny will be assigned to the Lakers’ NBA G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, according to the latest from ESPN’s Shams Charania. He’ll travel with the Lakers through Nov. 6 and then begin “shuffling” between the G League and the NBA team on Nov. 7 when the G League season officially begins.
This might be considered a controversial move in some circles simply because everything surrounding Bronny James has unfortunately become controversial. But don’t get it twisted: It’s not uncharacteristic for a second-round pick to be sent to the NBA G League to develop his game. That’s closer to the norm than anything.
And, in the case of Bronny, this is probably the best thing the Lakers could do for him.
In his regular season debut against the Timberwolves, he only played a little over three minutes. In those three minutes, it was easy to see that his timing simply wasn’t there. As a rookie, nobody expects it to be. But the learning curve there for Bronny is sharp — no matter who his father is.
The Lakers don’t have room for him in the rotation. He’s not a better player than, say, Max Christie or Jalen Hood-Schifino. And those are the names he’d need to supplant in the rotation to play.
But, even if he were to get there, remember, both Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood are both out with injuries. They’re two veterans who are far more likely to be contributing rotation players than Bronny at this point in their careers.
There’s just not much room for Bronny to learn and grow on the Lakers’ active roster. The best option, then, would be to send him to the G League where he can learn the NBA game and steadily improve.
This isn’t a demotion. It’s not a downgrade. And his stint in the G League doesn’t have to last forever — he’ll be transitioning back and forth between the active roster and the G League roster.
But what’s most important right now is that he gets the reps. The G League is the best place for him to do it.
The Wall works
I’m not going to lie — I was skeptical when I first read about The Wall.
I mean, come on. The idea of an uninterrupted massive section of Clippers’ fans in the Intuit Dome seemed trivial to me initially. Do Clippers fans even care that much?
It only took me one game to buy what Steve Ballmer and the Clippers were selling, mostly because Kevin Durant gave it his stamp of approval.
He missed two free throws while staring down thousands of screaming Clippers fans.
Kevin Durant: 0
The Wall: 2KD misses both and Clippers fans get free chicken pic.twitter.com/2KcFiLdrHs
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 24, 2024
Durant called The Wall “insane.” Devin Booker said “that [expletive] might work” after missing a free throw in front of it.
It’s only been one game. And these are only two (of the best of the best!) players in the NBA. But, man. If they’re saying this is a thing already? I think this might actually be a thing.
MORE ON THE WALL: Every team in the NBA needs to consider doing something like this.
Shootaround
— Charles Barkley still doesn’t know who anyone plays for. Never change, Inside the NBA. Bryan Kalbrosky has more.
— We ranked the NBA Cup courts from worst to “Please delete this.” Yes, you’re reading that correctly.
— Speaking of the Intuit Dome, this T-shirt toss is remarkable. Wow.
— Robert Zeglinski wrote a bit about what a difference Russell Westbrook might make for the Nuggets. Things aren’t so great after one game, but we’ve got a long season ahead, folks.
That’s a wrap! Thanks so much for reading Layup Lines today. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend.
Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
